The Steps to Win Your Heart
by Ceye
Summary: Yugi is heartbroken: Anzu is dating Kaiba! When Atem stays locked in his soul room for a week, he's unable to cheer Yugi up about it. However, when he reemerges, his jealousy and disbelief at the improbable pairing causes a dejected Yugi and determined pharaoh to try and fix their world again! How can he keep Kaiba from capturing the heart of the woman he loves forever? Rated M.
1. The Start

Hello everyone! First off, some information in case you didn't catch any details in the manga or anime that would be necessary to enjoy this fic to the fullest: Anzu is the Japanese name for Tea, who normally calls Yugi, Yugi. Yugi, of course, has an Egyptian pharaoh sharing his body named Atem, also known as Yami Yugi; in the Japanese version, he almost exclusively, save for a few, emotionally-charged times, calls Yugi "aibou", which means "partner". Jonouchi is Joey, and Honda is Tristan. Despite what Anzu calls the pharaoh on the show, she will call him "Yugi" in this story. This implies that, for the most part, Yugi and Atem are seen as essentially one person to Anzu. The pharaoh is most often contained inside Yugi's mind, but can switch places with him. If you're detail-oriented, you'll note a few areas where I use a different name from the one you may expect, as I may be referring to a different character from the current physical form of Yugi.

Please keep in mind this fic's rating of M.

 **This entire fanfiction was written in three days. 28,550 words, three days, like a mini, self-imposed NaNoWriMo** (Note: Since then I've made a few, very minor edits to rid the story of typos and whatnot) **. I did essentially nothing else those days except for wake up, write, eat, write more, and go to bed at two in the morning. It's also special in that, save for very few, minor edits, I wrote it completely chronologically. That is a rarity for me, but I did it.**

 **And I loved every minute of it. :)**

 **So please, enjoy the fruits of my labor, and review!**

* * *

Atem was deep in thought. He had been sitting in his soul room for a full week, trying to gather his thoughts together about what he would do next. He had requested his friends not go to Egypt to attempt to return him to his own era unless he felt he was ready, and the idea of leaving all of the people he had met in order to go back and be faced with an uncertain future in a hostile Egypt was a frightening idea. But each time he thought about it anew, he realized all over again that his future in this world was hardly guaranteed in comparison.

Which would be the better choice for him, a modern-day pharaoh in a friend-filled world, but in which pharaohs no longer even existed?

With a heavy sigh and a stretch, Atem brushed a strand of hair from his face, got up, and decided to check on Yugi; he had been completely unaware of any goings-on on the outside while he played several long rounds of Duel Monsters in his head to clear his mind.

But when he resumed his connection with his aibou, he was taken aback. He could swear, as soon as he opened the floodgates of emotion from his partner, he felt almost…sad?

"Yugi, hello," he called.

Yugi's eyes were downcast as he sifted mindlessly through his deck. He looked up in surprise upon hearing Atem's voice, but quickly resumed his focus on his cards again.

"Hey Pharaoh," he said weakly.

Atem tilted his head. "Yugi?" he repeated, concerned. Clearly, something was amiss.

"Yugi," he started again, more seriously this time, "I can tell something's wrong." The boy didn't respond. When he had flipped through his deck so that he now was on the same monster he started with, Atem knew it was serious. His aibou wasn't even paying attention to what he was doing.

"What is it?" he asked gently.

Yugi finally seemed to hear him. "Not ' _what'_ ," the downtrodden boy said simply, "but ' _who'_." He offered no further explanation.

Atem blinked. He was torn between asking for more information and leaving the boy alone for the time being. He took the opportunity to glance around the room, but as soon as he started, he gasped. It was a shambles compared to how Yugi normally left it

 _No, he must not be like this all day, or Ra forbid all week_ , Atem declared.

But at the same time, he didn't want to pry too hard and risk his aibou getting upset with him after he had just returned to his active consciousness. He took a softer approach.

"Why don't we ask Jonouchi to come to the arcade?" he suggested. "That always cheers you up a little. Or better yet, ask Anzu to come with you," he said with a devious smirk obvious in his voice.

Yugi stopped mid-deck. "Please don't mention her," he sighed, his voice cracking at the end. He felt his eyes begin to well up with tears.

 _What?_ Atem was on high alert now. Mentioning Anzu made him dejected? He loved talking about her.

"Besides, that would be inappropriate," Yugi said, looking down at his Kuriboh.

"What? Why?" Atem asked, baffled and uncomprehending.

"Because," Yugi began, looking as if each word pained him, "she's with someone else now."

Atem's eyes widened in shock.

"No…"

Was he serious?

"Who?"

"Seto Kaiba."

" _Kaiba?!_ " Atem nearly shouted, not even bothering to hide the surprise in his voice. "When? How? … _Why?_ "

"Because she likes him, I don't know!" Yugi said, getting exasperated with Atem now. "Like I said, don't mention her," he snapped.

The two of them sat in silence for a while before acknowledging each other's presence again. Atem was deep in thought, or more accurately, deep in confusion about this new information. What on _earth_ had there ever been between Anzu and Kaiba? He realized he hadn't always paid attention to Kaiba other than to be suspicious of his motives, but he found it odd there would be _that_ much of an oversight in his judgment of how he felt about Anzu…someone he _had_ always paid attention to.

What was going on?

When Yugi's emotions seemed to be throttled back to sadness instead of irritation again – and he was on his fourth time flipping through his deck – Atem gently prodded, "Well, the arcade still seems like a better place than here to vent frustration." He felt he needed to do the same, even though he'd only just returned to Yugi's world.

Yugi stopped for a moment to consider this, then put down his cards and sighed. "I guess you're right." He languorously stood up and made his way to the front of the house, sitting down to put on his shoes before heading out the door.


	2. The Arcade

Within half an hour, the pair – or rather, Yugi's body and Atem's attached mind – were at the arcade. Yugi immediately put a 100-yen coin into the machine in front of him and threw himself wholly into a card game.

Atem allowed himself a small grin. At least his aibou hadn't lost his will to play card games. But as he watched the match continue over several minutes, he began to worry. He was a little _too_ into it, getting frustrated at every slight disadvantage. Atem could see this quickly becoming an all-consuming obsession if something wasn't done about the situation clouding his aibou's mind.

To a sudden sound, Yugi's eyes immediately shot up, as if he were a deer caught in headlights. His suspicious actions piqued Atem's interest and the pharaoh began listening intently. Then, he heard it too.

Anzu's laughing voice.

"Anzu?" Yugi said aloud. He poked his head around his machine, and sure enough, he spotted her in the distance, getting testy with the other players in a racing game. Her face was extremely focused on the game, and when she passed another car, she laughed again.

"She's here," Yugi whispered to himself, and – as Atem noted, much to his relief – suddenly he forgot all about his card game, his fingers now hanging loosely on top of the machine's buttons.

"Well, this _is_ the closest arcade to your school," the pharaoh stated. _But what an opportunity!_ he thought to himself.

"Yugi, tell me: Is there anything around this room that would particularly appeal to Anzu?"

Yugi looked confused for a second, then scanned the arcade room. He saw two possible suspects: both were claw machines, one for big toys, and another for small stuffed animals. He pointed to the small stuffed animal claw machine. "That. Anzu really likes small, cuddly things. She always has," he finished quietly, feeling another bout of wistfulness come over him.

When the pharaoh didn't respond, Yugi looked at him through his mental link. "Pharaoh?" When he got no response from the older male save for a smirk, the realization suddenly dawned upon him.

"Oh."

Atem had a point; Yugi was pretty good at arcade games, and the claw machine was no exception. He began his move toward the machine, checking to his side often to make sure Anzu was still fully focused on her game. He tippy-toed near the machine, and was almost there…

"Hey, watch where you're goin'!" a big, burly man – who looked far more appropriately suited to be in a gym than here at the arcade – snapped at Yugi. To the boy's horror, Anzu looked behind her at the sound of the commotion.

Yugi abruptly moved so the man was blocking her view and transformed his voice by a full octave. "Sorry about that," he said, scurrying off while grabbing the guy and using him as cover.

"What's the big idea?" he said, but then, to Yugi's surprise, when he got a good look at him, he laughed. "You're a cute little guy," he said.

Yugi stammered, "T-thanks," and jumped over to the claw machine as swiftly as possible, hiding behind it. He tried to think of a solution as fast as he could.

"I-I left you a present at Burger World!" Yugi said suddenly, trying anything to get him off of his tail.

"You…you did?" the man said, his eyes absolutely twinkling. "What is it?"

"You'll have to go there and see yourself! Mention my name, and it'll include a free burger!" Yugi declared. Little did the man know that it was just Free Burger Day, and his name wouldn't do squat.

The biggest smile crossed the man's face. "Oh yeah?" he said, clapping his hands together. "I am pretty hungry! That sounds positively _lovely_!" he oozed. "So, what's your name?"

Yugi looked around, trying desperately to make up a name on the spot.

"K-Kaiba. Seto Kaiba." He said it in almost a whisper, hoping no one else in the vicinity would hear him.

"Well, thanks, little man! I mean, Kaiba. Or should I say _Seto_?" he flirted, waving his fingers at Yugi as he left.

Yugi waited until after he was gone for a full minute before letting out a sigh of terror, and relief. He came out from behind the claw machine.

"That was…"

"…something else," Atem finished for him.

He turned to face his target, and quickly eyed its contents for the cutest yet least impossibly-placed stuffed animal he could find. "There!" he said, pointing at the little, cat-faced, white bunny on the back shelf. It wasn't the easiest grab, but it was definitely the cutest. Yugi inserted a 100-yen coin into the machine and lined his prey up with the claw. He spent a good ten seconds looking straight into the machine, from the side of the machine, and diagonally to make sure he had a good shot at getting it. The problem was that it was on the back wall, so it'd be hard to grab on all four sides.

He pressed the big, red button and watched as the claw sank down to grab his catch. It had a clear path on three of the sides, but wasn't able to grab the bunny's backside. Instead, when it came up again, it pushed the bunny down off of the back shelf so the poor thing landed on its face on the soft cotton floor of the machine.

"Got it!" Yugi said triumphantly.

Atem raised a brow. "But it's still in there."

"Just watch," Yugi said, winking.

This made Atem smile. Yugi seemed to be quite into winning the little critter for Anzu, and he was happy to see his aibou grinning again. Yugi put another coin into the machine and lined the claw up with his faceplanted target. He spent another ten seconds checking his alignment from all sides before hitting the button again, and he watched with anticipation as the claw descended.

As the claw neared the bunny, Yugi's eyes lit up. It grabbed the white bunny on all sides and picked it up, but when it reached the top with the critter in tow, the claw shook violently from the recoil of stopping suddenly. Atem realized Yugi was holding his breath. The bunny's foot fell out of the claw's grip, and the critter seemed to be edging toward the gap between two of the talons more and more as the claw moved. Yugi bit his lip as he watched the two move back toward the front left side of the machine.

He watched it like a hawk, and his diligence was rewarded: his face lit up in glee as the little white bunny was let go and tumbled down the winner's pit.

Yugi pumped his fist in the air and shouted, "All right!" then immediately covered his mouth and crouched down silently to fish the prize out of the machine. He picked it up and looked at it as if it were as precious as his newborn child. Atem's whole countenance smiled at the boy's victory.

Now, it was time to give it to Anzu.

"All right, aibou, let's give it to her," Atem said with pride, eyeing where Anzu sat now.

When the boy didn't respond, he said, "Yugi?"

Yugi was standing still in front of the machine, looking at Anzu. He looked to be frozen in place. "M-maybe we can play another game first?" When Atem gave him a look, he continued, "I-I-I just need a little time to loosen up, is all."

"Yugi, I understand it may be nerve-wracking," he said, glancing back over at Anzu and her game, "But she's almost done with all four of her races. We have no way of knowing if she's going to play another round or leave."

Yugi looked down at the bunny, then down at his shoes. "I…I guess you're right." Still, he couldn't bring himself to move.

He tried to steel himself. _Come on, Yugi, you've known her all your life! It's not like you haven't talked to her thousands of times before_ , he tried to reason with himself, convincing himself it was no big deal. But his legs still felt like Jell-O.

"Yugi…" Atem started softly, "would you like my assistance?"

Yugi shifted his lips against each other and felt his ears grow hot in embarrassment. "I…"

"Yugi, it's nothing to be ashamed of," Atem coaxed.

Yugi stared at the bunny, then nodded. "Please help me, Pharaoh."

With that, Atem overtook Yugi's body, relegating Yugi to watch from the pharaoh's usual seat in his mind.

Atem closed his fingers around the small bunny and moved casually toward Anzu. Just as he approached, she shouted at the machine, "SECOND PLACE? YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! I WOULD'VE BEEN FIRST IF THE WHOLE GAME WASN'T CONSPIRING TO GIVE EVERYONE BLUE SHELLS!"

Nearly the entire arcade floor looked at her. It took her a second to realize this, then sink in her seat, flushing crimson. When most people had looked away, she got out of her seat and stood sheepishly by the machine, eyes downturned.

Atem chuckled. Immediately, Anzu was alerted, and she looked up. "Yugi?" she called in surprise.

"Hello, Anzu," Atem greeted. She approached him as he continued, "I suppose these games do seem a little unfair at times."

"You can say that again," she huffed, crossing her arms and turning her face to stick her tongue out at the arcade machine.

She looked back at him. "What brings you here?"

"I wanted to get a little bit off of my mind," he replied simply, avoiding delving into too much detail for his or Yugi's comfort. "What about you?"

"I…uh…" she started, but instantly began to falter. Could she say it to his face?

"I'm…here with Kaiba," she explained, pushing her two index fingers together nervously. After a moment, she peeked up at his face to gauge his reaction.

"Oh, I see…" Atem said, frowning. Suddenly, he could feel the weight of Yugi's disappointment and rejection heavy on his mind. He tried to brush it away from the front of his brain in order to continue the conversation. "Where is he?"

"He's on the fighting game floor playing Dead or Alive," she said. "I don't really like that kind of game, so I came downstairs when he got really into it."

Atem nodded. "Well, I'm glad you're here."

Anzu looked confused. "You are? Why?"

Atem opened his hand to reveal the little white bunny Yugi had won. Immediately, as if it were a magnet, Anzu's eyes were drawn to it, and she nearly squealed as a flush of glee spread over her cheeks. "Oh my goodness! Where did you find that?!"

"That claw machine over there," he said, pointing behind him and to the side with his thumb.

Anzu drew her hands together in front of her and just stared at the bunny for many seconds. After a while, she couldn't stand it anymore. "Can I…can I hold it?"

Atem waited until she was looking directly into his face to respond. "Of course, Anzu. It's yours."

"It's…what?" she asked, her face blank. "It's mine?" Atem only grinned.

"It's for me?" she repeated, her voice tinged with excitement. To this, the tricolor-haired pharaoh nodded.

"Oh, thank you, Yugi!" she said, nearly launching herself forward, and Atem definitely noticed. But, she felt hesitation keep her back, and she throttled her reaction down to simply smiling widely and taking the little bunny gingerly from his hand.

Atem witnessed her conscious reversal, and tightened his lips a little at her hesitation to touch him freely. He noted that he should be grateful for every single form of affection she showed or even hinted at from this point on now that she was with Kaiba.

He closed his eyes as she approached, taking a deep breath and letting the feel of the soft brush of her fingers against his hand envelop him in a fluttering sensation, starting from his chest. As he concentrated on it, he could feel Yugi's desire pound in his heart alongside his own. Losing himself in it was like a form of whole-body meditation.

When she retracted her hand, he opened his eyes again to look at her, the beautiful object of his affections. She was consumed by the small critter, squeezing and petting it and rubbing it gently against her face with a peaceful smile playing on her lips. She looked very happy.

He watched her, mesmerized by her gentleness with her new prized possession, one she seemed very grateful for. "Beautiful," Atem couldn't help from saying under his breath. Yugi was silent, but felt exactly the same way. They both appreciated the sight of her lavishing attention on her little animal, and grinned happily when she attached the bunny to her phone case.

"Thank you, Pharaoh," Yugi said from within his mind.

Atem smiled. "And thank you for getting her her present," he returned. Yugi blushed, grinning bashfully.

A sudden, familiar voice interrupted both of their thoughts. "Yugi?" it called questioningly.

Atem immediately snapped out of his daydream at the unwelcome intrusion. "Kaiba," he answered the brown-haired man, before he even saw his face.

Kaiba narrowed his eyes and resumed coming down the stairs, watching Atem. "What are you doing here?" he said as he came upon the pharaoh and his girlfriend.

"Using the machines, of course."

"I mean with Anzu," he clarified, shooting daggers in Anzu's direction.

"She was simply here at the same time."

Kaiba narrowed his eyes and looked suspiciously at her new phone critter. "Where did you get that?"

"I won it at that claw machine over there," she said, pointing to the one Atem had shown her earlier.

Kaiba followed her finger to the machine and saw the other animals inside of it.

"I see. Let's get going; I need some fresh air after seeing _him_."

Anzu looked stupefied with her mouth slightly agape, but nodded. She looked to Atem. "I'll see you later, Yugi," she said quietly, almost shamefully. She gave him an apologetic look before following Kaiba out of the arcade.

"See you, Anzu," Atem called after her. As she disappeared from sight, he growled. How dare Kaiba make her feel ashamed to talk to him?

He could feel Yugi's deflation about the whole incident fill his consciousness to the brim.

"Don't worry about it, aibou. There is still much we can do; that was only the first try. I'd say all of that enjoyment we witnessed because of her new phone charm is a definite win."

Yugi lightened up a little and agreed. The pharaoh had a point: that had clearly been worth it.

But even so, he stared after where Anzu had disappeared from the arcade with a feeling of deep longing drowning his heart.


	3. The Invitation

Yugi looked down at his desk. He was fumbling with his hands, trying to muster up the courage to ask Anzu to the next meeting he and Atem had planned. He badly wanted to do it without the pharaoh's help this time, but did he have the fortitude?

But Yugi wouldn't give up. If he'd learned anything yesterday, it's that he was still Anzu's best friend, and he could still make her smile. That gave him hope. He steeled himself and spent the few minutes before the class filtered in talking himself into doing it. He'd be prepared to ask her when she came in.

As if he had called her, Yugi spotted a girl with shoulder-length brown hair bobbing her head up and down in what looked like an emphatic nod. He watched with interest as she turned around and walked into the classroom, but his smile upon seeing her enter was quickly stomped upon by her company who now obscured her from Yugi's vision.

Kaiba.

The gusto Yugi had been fostering since the time he woke up almost immediately deflated upon his entrance. He knew he'd see Kaiba today, but he wasn't prepared to see his face just before he was aiming to ask the teenaged CEO's _girlfriend_ to hang out after school. Suddenly, the pit of his stomach felt nauseatingly hollow.

Yugi purposefully looked away as Kaiba passed his desk to get to his seat, avoiding the brown-haired man's eyes like the plague. When he had sat down and directed his gaze toward the window, Yugi chanced a look at Anzu. He was surprised to find her standing right in front of him, and he...

He…

Yugi's mind drew a blank.

Anzu was wearing the most beautiful, elegant dress he'd ever seen her don. It wasn't quite the likes of which you'd find in a ballroom, but it was close: it was modest and a bit sporty, but brightly colored, which suited Anzu's personality rather well. He found himself eyeing her from head to toe, and with a start, he realized she watched him do it.

"H-h-h-hi, Anzu," he stammered sheepishly, incredibly embarrassed at having been caught looking at her like that.

But Anzu only seemed amused. She giggled, "Hey, Yugi."

As if repeating the pharaoh's near-mishap the day before, Yugi couldn't help himself. "You look…"

Anzu's face changed to one of surprise, and she looked into his face as if she were anxiously awaiting his next words.

But he was too shell-shocked by her appearance to notice her waiting with bated breath. Because of this, he was able to come up with a curveball that surprised even Atem.

"…beautiful," he finished breathily.

Atem's eyes shot wide in Yugi's mind. "Aibou…" he said, amazed.

To Yugi's words, Anzu inhaled sharply, and her whole face lit on fire. She couldn't believe she had just heard such a stalwart declaration come from her normally incredibly timid best friend's mouth.

"I-I-I-I mean!" Yugi started, now aware of what he had just said. To his relief, in the bustle before class, hardly anyone else but Anzu had been listening, but nevertheless, witnessing her stare at him as if he were an entirely different person from the one she knew made him nervous, not to mention knowing what he had just said to her. Suddenly he felt hot all over, and he felt himself begin to sweat.

"Thank you, Yugi," Anzu said in earnest, beaming. "I'm really happy you think so." But there was something else in her eyes. Was it…guilt?

As the bell rang, she walked slowly, like a floating spirit, over to her seat, as if she were under mind control. She sat down and bit her lip once before the teacher came in.

Yugi stared over at her, incredibly embarrassed but incredibly emboldened by their encounter. He had actually said what was on his mind to her. And, better yet, he had done so in front of Kaiba! Well, he hadn't heard, but regardless, he had been in the same room. For the whole class period, he could do nothing but look over at Anzu and admire her.

But as he did so, a revelation dawned upon him. With a deep pang in his gut, he realized how she must have gotten her hands on a gown so lavish.

 _Kaiba…_

Realizing that Kaiba had bought her such an expensive item of clothing reminded Yugi of the harsh reality that he couldn't afford to provide for her the same way the CEO did. It took only this thought to reinstate the inferiority and terror he previously felt pulsating through his mind about wanting to ask her to hang out, especially while someone as impressive and accomplished as her boyfriend Kaiba was in the same country, let alone the same classroom.

He spent the rest of class beating himself up over his lack of resolve, cursing himself as a coward. It's not like he didn't know about Kaiba's fortune or expect him to be here; he should have readied himself mentally for handling that, and what it would make him feel. Not having done so was an amateur oversight.

"Do not go home without asking her," Atem warned. He had been quiet in Yugi's mind for most of the morning, letting the boy work himself up to become his own cheerleader, but when he felt his aibou's determination falter at the prospect of crossing his successful rival, he had to say something. After all, he knew Yugi would be much more upset with himself if he _didn't_ ask Anzu before school ended – and therefore dodge the risk of the CEO's wrath – than he would if he got into a confrontation with Kaiba by not playing it safe.

"I just…"

"Yugi. Listen to me. She has known you for years. She has not changed because of her new…company. You simply must talk to her as you used to. He cannot fault you for continuing to be her friend." Yugi listened, intent on letting the pharaoh encourage him. "Perhaps if she were another girl, then to her, that would be okay. But you _know_ her. She's Anzu. Anzu won't let Kaiba come between her and her friends." The boy nodded in response, gulping.

"After all, how many times have you heard her state that friendship is above all? She herself would keep the confrontation you are so worried about from carrying on too far."

Yugi felt his spirits begin to lift. "You're right, Pharaoh," he stated, hardened again, at least somewhat.

"Just try to add onto that fire you held in your soul mere hours ago."

With that, the bell rang. Class was over.

Yugi instantly slammed his fist on his desk. "All right, let's do this." He stood up and started walking over to Anzu. But, before he got too close, his lip began to tremble as he saw Kaiba approach her instead.

"I'm going now. I'll see you later on."

Anzu nodded. "See you after the meeting, Seto!"

Yugi breathed out. "'Seto'…?" They were on a first-name basis already? Just yesterday, she had called him Kaiba.

Atem flared up. "Yugi," he nearly shouted in his mind, frustrated now. "If you don't do it now, you're damning yourself to be sullen for the rest of the day. You will simply have to try again tomorrow, and perhaps this time, Kaiba won't conveniently have a meeting to attend at the end of school."

Yugi shook his head, breaking himself out of it. The last thing he wanted was to waste his day on regret because of not growing a backbone when he wanted – no, _needed_ – it the most. The day hadn't gone too badly so far, after all.

The second he felt Kaiba was sufficiently out of hearing range, he called, "Anzu!"

Anzu turned to face him. "What's up, Yugi?" At the sudden commotion, Jonouchi turned his head, too.

Still feeling the pharaoh's scolding fresh on his mind, he immediately blurt out, "Will you…"

Hearing those starting words, Jonouchi elbowed Honda in the ribs. "Hey, Honda, check it out," he whispered, pointing at the two of them and instantly donning a deviously mischievous expression.

Anzu was gazing intently at her shorter best friend.

"Will you…come and…?"

He could hear the snickers of Jonouchi and Honda to his side. It irritated him, but rather than scare him off, for some reason he felt invigorated, as if he were propelled by his earlier success to show them once and for all that he wasn't a timid little child anymore.

"Will you come and hang with me after school?" he said in a long string, clenching his fists in front of him so hard that his nails dug into the palms of both of his hands. When his sentence was finished, he had to catch his breath, but tried to do it without being too obviously winded. That had taken a lot out of him. He was curious to see how his two friends reacted, but more than that, he cared about receiving Anzu's answer first.

Though it was exceedingly difficult, he was adamant to keep eye contact with Anzu until he heard a reply.

"You mean…you and me together?"

Yugi nodded silently, but the pounding in his own ears was almost deafening to him.

"Oh." Her face looked slightly worried, and a little bit suspicious at the suddenness of his request. "Um… Where would we go?"

"To find someplace to eat lunch!" Remembering what time it was, he backtracked. "Ahh-hah, I mean dinner!" Then, realizing how _dinner_ sounded, he began blushing furiously, getting redder and redder the more his sentences dragged on. "I mean, whatever meal you want to have, really!" He felt his fortress of adrenaline begin to crack, but still, he was determined.

"I –" she started with uncertainty clouding her features, but then looked around the room. Seto was no longer there. But even if he had been, why would it have mattered? He was just asking her to hang out.

"Okay, Yugi. That sounds good!" she finished with a smile. She wanted to ask him more about his sudden offer, but it was getting harder to ignore the increasingly obscure and outlandish faces the two mentally challenged monkeys to her right were making at them. This wasn't the place to ask for more details while _they_ were still around.

Yugi couldn't believe it. He had done it. His fists lowered a little in his astonishment, and he stared blankly at her for a second. "G-great!" In his rush of amazement, he didn't meet his other friends' eyes. But finally, when it dawned on him that she had actually accepted and it all had actually just happened the way he wanted it to, his surge of confidence was so great that he at last dared to look to his left to see his friends' reactions.

He was immediately met with two gloating and hooting faces the likes of which he had never seen from the two teens standing there. Jonouchi was waggling his eyebrows unbearably at Yugi and Honda was grinning at them from ear to ear.

As their target was finally looking at them, Jonouchi spoke up. "Well, well, Yuge. What have we here?" His sentence was nearly cut off by his own maddening giggles.

"Yeah," Honda added. "It seems we've just witnessed something truly _magical_ ," he teased emphatically, clapping his hands together and swooning.

"Oh, shut up, Jonouchi. You too, Honda. You both look like buffoons," Anzu bit out curtly, her fists balling at her sides. "Come on, Yugi, let's go outside." Yugi nodded.

The two of them left, but as they made their way out of the classroom, Yugi couldn't help but look back and catch a more serious-faced pair of friends staring at him before getting rid of their stupid faces and giving him a smiling, dual thumbs-up. Behind his back, Yugi did the same, smiling back with excitement.


	4. The Walk

Yugi and Anzu sat outside together on a bench in front of the school. It was a sunny day, and Yugi was sure that his world was even brighter as he sat beside the girl he so deeply desired. He was consumed by the want to have her look at him shyly, and be taken away by his words.

But he would work up to that, if such a blasphemous thing were even possible. He had already won a major victory today, and piled atop his victory from the arcade the day before, he was feeling like his chances had momentum. He'd do anything to make it a continued winning streak.

Normally, as friends, silences between them would be comfortable, relaxing. But right now, Yugi's mind was racing at a mile a minute.

"So," he started.

"So," Anzu echoed, looking down at her socks.

"When are you hanging out with…him?" Yugi finished. He had wanted to say "your boyfriend" or "Kaiba" for the sake of utmost clarity, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Around six. We're going to see a movie," she explained.

"Oh," Yugi said dejectedly, looking down at the ground.

Anzu noticed and quickly tried to change the subject. "I'm excited to have some time before that to do something else, though." Yugi nodded.

"Ask her if she wants to drop off her school items," Atem goaded gently.

"Do you want to get rid of our backpacks first before we go?" Yugi asked.

"Yeah, that would be nice," she agreed.

"Should we leave them in our lockers, or do you want to go home first?"

Anzu's eyes widened. Going home first to prepare to go out sounded an awful lot like a…date.

"Yugi, I…"

As she started speaking, so did Atem in Yugi's head: "Yugi, don't let her assume…"

"Let's just leave them in our lockers for today," Yugi said quickly.

Anzu looked up at him. Then, she nodded her head in agreement. "Okay, yeah. Let's do that."

But neither of them moved, at least not immediately.

"Let's go put them away, then."

"Yeah."

In the slightly awkward silence, the two of them got up at the same time and started walking to their lockers.

After they were finished offloading their school supplies, Yugi and Anzu met back up together at the bench.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Mmhmm," Anzu agreed.

"Good," Yugi said as he started to walk to their destination.

Of which Anzu was still unaware. "Where are we going?" she asked, catching up to him in a jiffy.

"You'll see when we get there," Yugi said mysteriously. He and Atem had found the place of interest on a map using a computer at home, and Atem had adamantly said that it would be perfect for the occasion.

"Hmm," Anzu said quietly. It wasn't like him to surprise her like this, at least not usually. She wondered what was up with him lately.

What Anzu couldn't see was that Yugi was trying his best just to remain coherent in conversation while his nerves were acting up. He basically had to chant to himself to remember which foot to place in front of the other next. Anzu followed him significantly less anxiously, completely unaware of his internal struggle. The silence brewing between them as they walked discomfited Yugi even more.

"Just relax, and take her to the place we decided upon. Do not feel too pressured to continue the conversation if it doesn't feel natural."

"Easy for you to say," Yugi accused the conveniently-hidden-behind-his-forehead pharaoh. Nothing felt natural right now. His best friend of many years was dating a teenaged CEO, and here he was taking her out on what very much felt like a date despite that.

"What am I doing?" Yugi admonished himself. "She's dating Kaiba."

"Yugi. Do not think like this; she is just beside you. You have done so well so far; do not make yourself uncomfortable. You are simply having dinner."

"Right," Yugi answered the voice in his head, but he still couldn't completely shake the feeling that there was something wrong with the situation.

"So…" the boy started.

"Hmm? Yes, Yugi?" she answered as they continued walking to their unbeknownst-to-her destination.

"How have you been lately, Anzu?"

It was a question that surprised both Atem and Anzu, in that he was probably referring to her time spent with Kaiba over the past several days. He was voluntarily bringing it up.

"I've been…learning things," she said vaguely. In the silence that followed, she continued, "It's been…different."

"May I ask why?" Yugi asked carefully, trying to be as polite as possible to avoid her feeling as if she were being pressured.

"I've never been with someone as…important as him before. He's a very interesting character."

Yugi smiled sadly to himself. "Yeah, he is."

"And he's always wanted at work. The meetings they call him to after school often last several hours." Anzu's eyes glazed over slightly. "It's like he doesn't have time for anything," she finished quietly.

Yugi granted her that one, given how busy he knew Kaiba was. Nevertheless, he had been about to mention that the CEO clearly had some time for her since they were going to a movie later, but he wasn't about to help Kaiba's cause. He instead chose to respond with contemplative silence.

As if reading his mind, Anzu continued, "I can't complain too much, though; it's not like he hasn't been making an effort. I knew he was busy before we…before this week," she backpedaled. "And I chose to say yes anyway."

"About that," Yugi latched on. "Do you mind if I ask why you…said yes to him?"

At hearing this inquiry, Atem was at full attention. For all the time Yugi spent trying to overcome his fear of talking to Anzu while she was in a relationship with Kaiba, Atem's was filled with trying to figure out why on earth she ever agreed to be in said relationship to begin with.

Anzu finally looked Yugi straight in the face. The suddenness of it made him want to shy away from eye contact, but he didn't. He desperately wanted to know why she had agreed to be Kaiba's. After meeting his imploring gaze for some time, she looked away.

"He made it…extremely apparent that he was into me. And when he caught me nervously trying to change the subject, he looked really downtrodden."

"But later, he asked me again. And I thought…" Her eyes veered off further and further away from her company. This is the part during which she definitely couldn't look at her best friend beside her. "I thought…since I was… _unattached_ …why not?"

Her brows knit. "It's been an exploratory road, and Jonouchi and Honda have teased me a lot about it, sounding really concerned sometimes. But…I promise you he's not all that bad, and there's nothing to worry about." Anzu looked determined not to make Kaiba out to be a bad guy in any way. "He's very…soft underneath that hard exterior."

Despite his desire for Anzu's happiness, Yugi felt himself wishing there _was_ something to worry about. Nothing dangerous, of course, but just something that was enough to encourage Anzu to look elsewhere…

Catching himself in his meandering thoughts, he cast his eyes at the ground again.

He was ashamed of himself.

"Yugi, that's nothing to be ashamed –"

"That's easy for you to say, Pharaoh," Yugi snapped in frustration, mostly with himself. "You're not the one who's been fumbling with these feelings for years, thinking all kinds of things like this. Wishing for someone else's misfortune for his own personal gain," he snapped at the voice in his head. He felt terrible.

Atem was silent, silenced. He had the inclination to tell Yugi…that he wasn't correct about that at all. But now was definitely not the time, and his present companion was definitely not the company to have that conversation next to.

"She's happy with him," Yugi proclaimed, irritation and heartbreak in his voice.

After a while of allowing Yugi's sudden anger with him die down ever so slightly, he said: "Yugi, that's because she doesn't know what it's like to be with you."

Yugi stopped mid-step.

The pharaoh had gotten his attention, because he was right. He had a point: maybe the reason her and Kaiba's relationship looked so rosy to him was because he wasn't thinking about what a relationship she had with _him_ would look like. He had only been thinking of his desire for her, his absolute longing. But, what if he also considered what he could give her that Kaiba couldn't? Did the picture look any different then?

He thought back to all he knew about Kaiba. He hadn't even known Kaiba was that interested in Anzu. The very fact that he or Atem or anybody was surprised about their sudden relationship showed how little they had interacted together before then.

But he and Anzu had known each other for so long. He knew her favorite color, he knew her childhood dreams. He even knew she had loved little stuffed animals ever since she was little herself.

If they were together… Ra forbid, Yugi could barely comprehend the wonderment of the thought, but if they were together…he and his best friend… He would be ultimately and unequivocally devoted to her. He knew what she liked, and if he didn't know a preference she had, he would seek it out as quickly as possible. He just cared about her _that much_.

Maybe it wasn't fair to compare himself to Kaiba, but for all the money the young CEO had, Yugi had the knowledge of his best friend's inner workings on his side. He knew she was spunky and rambunctious, but so very sweet and playful at her softest times. He had witnessed many of those times. He had even been the _cause_ of some of those times.

The thought of Anzu snuggling the little white bunny against her face entered his mind, and he smiled.

"I'm not out of the running after all," he said to himself in wonderment, and Atem nodded his emphatic agreement.

"You now know your worth going into this, aibou. You are not the lesser choice. Not by a long shot," Atem affirmed the younger boy's brightening thoughts. "But you are also not necessarily better than Kaiba. You are both simply different people…but only one of you knows Anzu like a dearly beloved friend."

Yugi nodded. "And that's the kind of care she deserves," they nearly said in unison.

Anzu looked over at Yugi, who hadn't resumed walking. "Yugi, is something wrong?"

Yugi blinked himself out of his thoughts and Atem's conversation, and he stared back at her. "No, not at all," he said, with an almost divinely relieved smile crossing his features. "We're almost there," he said, his voice now a considerably happier, lighter tone than before. He wouldn't say his nervousness had completely melted, but for the moment, it had dulled to the point where his overall mood was…confident.

In the next moment, they came upon the American restaurant Atem and Yugi had chosen for the outing. It had been mostly Atem's idea, and when they approached, both could tell why: it was a far fancier place than either Yugi or Anzu had originally expected.

Suddenly feeling a pang of nervousness again, Yugi swallowed. "Atem, I thought this wasn't supposed to seem like a date."

"Surely you don't think I knew this place was this nice…" Atem responded, but his voice trailing off with more than a hint of mischief was amply suspicious.

Yugi gulped again, eyeing the exterior. If this is how it looked on the outside, he wondered what the inside looked like.

"Pharaoh, I…I don't know if I can handle this kind of atmosphere. I've never been to a place this nice with a girl before, especially not _her_."

Atem nodded in understanding. Though he didn't alert Yugi, he had to hide the small smirk that formed on his face. "I understand, aibou. You have done remarkably well today. The progress you've made in hardening your nerves alone makes me very proud. No one would count it against you if you wanted to take a break," the pharaoh persuaded.

"I, uh…" Yugi started, looking over at Anzu, who was still gorgeously adorned in her light dress as she continued to gawk at the fancy restaurant her best friend had taken her to over the course of half an hour. Immediately, the influx of desire Yugi felt at the sight of her like that infused his heart with new reason to beat. He didn't know if he could keep it from beating straight out of his chest at this rate, and especially in these surroundings.

"I think that might be a better idea," he acquiesced. For once, he didn't feel that guilty about having the pharaoh take over. After all, he had done a lot today, and he was the one who asked Anzu here to begin with. He had braved the presence of Kaiba in class, and complimented her, and he had even won her her treasured cell phone charm yesterday. He definitely wouldn't complain to be given a short break to recover while watching intently how Atem handled this kind of situation. He might even take notes.

"As you wish, aibou," the pharaoh said, but as he did, Yugi couldn't help but glimpse a satisfied smirk cross his face before he felt his body and mind trade places.


	5. The Dinner

When Anzu finally managed to look over at Yugi, she noted he had become taller and more confident. She mused at this for a moment before asking "Yugi, is this really where you meant to take me?"

"Of course, Anzu. Let's go inside." He started forward, and Anzu followed.

"How many?" a server asked them within a few seconds of entering.

"Two," said Atem.

"Excellent. Right this way, please," the man said, holding out his arm in the direction of their table.

As the two of them followed him, Anzu eyed Yugi. His face looked straight, as if he weren't worried about the situation at all. As if it didn't matter that she was someone else's girlfriend. She felt a certain, self-gratifying vibe exude from his countenance, and she couldn't help but find it almost… _alluring_.

"Here you are. I'll be back with your menus in just a minute."

"Thank you," Atem said, but he barely looked at the man. His eyes were only focused on the woman in front of him.

At the intensity of his gaze, Anzu blushed. "Yugi, what are you looking at me that way for?"

"I've just never seen you in such a glorious, fitting gown. You look like royalty." _I would know._

Anzu's breath hitched in her throat. "Yugi, you…you're flattering me…" She felt exposed as both of her cheeks turned beet red.

 _As I should_ , he said to himself, almost aloud. But he didn't want to come off too strong, not so early in the night.

"Forgive me, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"N-no, it's not that. Not at all, I just…"

Atem's deep, crimson eyes told her to continue.

"T-the situation is just a bit rare, is all. I mean, here we are at a beautiful restaurant, and you…"

"…And I?" he encouraged.

"And, well, you're complimenting me and making me feel like…a little bit of a princess, to be honest," she finished, the color of her face refusing to return to normal.

To this, Atem only smiled.

"But then again, I mean, I could be reading the situation all wrong. You could just be bringing me here for the food, and you're not treating me or anything, and I've just been…reading it all wrong," she repeated, her head a jumble.

"Oh, Anzu, I fully intend to treat you to this meal; you won't be paying a cent. You could easily have forgotten your purse and the night would go no differently."

Anzu was rendered speechless.

Again, Atem felt the conversation was coming on too strong. But, if he were honest with himself, her questions did seem to be asking for exactly the kind of answers he was giving her.

In the silence that followed, for a long time, Yugi, who was watching with amazement from Atem's mind, could do nothing but blink. "Whoa…" he finally managed.

In the next moment, the waiter returned with their menus and slid them toward the two of them.

"What would you like to drink?" he asked.

"Just water would be fine," Atem responded. But Anzu didn't say a thing, nor did she look like she even noticed the waiter was there.

"Two waters, please," the pharaoh corrected with a small grin. The waiter nodded and left them alone again.

"Would you like to look over the menu, Anzu?" Atem offered.

Anzu said nothing, but nodded. She pulled up the menu in front of her and seemed to be very interested in it all of the sudden.

After reading over a dozen items that either contained the word "gourmet" or were at least 2500 yen, Anzu looked at Atem suspiciously over the top of her menu.

"Yugi, what's this _really_ all about? Are you trying to make me forgive you for something?"

Atem looked at her blankly before bursting out in laughter. "You think this is an apology for something I've done?"

Atem turned inward for a moment, smirking with amusement at his aibou. "Aibou, what have you done in the past that has made her suspect you of such things?"

Yugi was laughing so nervously he couldn't answer for several seconds. "Let's just say I've pushed her into the pool one or two times when we've been at school, or at a theme park…while she's had her normal clothes on. The last time I did that, she got really mad and I ended up buying her her lunch for a week. That's probably what she's referring to," he explained, his own cheeks hot.

The pharaoh nearly guffawed in laughter, but realized it would be exceedingly inelegant to do so, especially since the girl sitting across from him hadn't heard the conversation he would be laughing at. He cleared his throat, coughed once, and turned his attention back to Anzu.

"No, this is not to gain your forgiveness, Anzu."

"Then what is it?" Anzu demanded seriously, so much so that it threw Atem off guard. She had put down her menu and was staring at him intently, her head tilted slightly to the side, imploring him.

Atem couldn't answer her intense blue eyes for a long time. He stood there, himself rendered speechless by her sudden burst of emotion directed entirely at him.

Anzu sighed at his silence. "You bring me here, you compliment me with really, really sweet things, but… And you know I'm with Seto," she redirected her sentence exasperatedly.

"What do you want me to do? What do you want me to _say_?"

Atem was lost in her pleading gaze, and lost in the mire of his own thoughts. "I…" he began, but he didn't even know where he could take his next sentence that would make her realize his position, make her see it his way.

"I'm sorry, Anzu. I _have_ made you uncomfortable." He said nothing else, choosing only to lean his elbow on the table and put his face in his hand, closing his eyes.

The sincerity of his reaction to her outburst made Anzu's heart ache. "Look, Yugi, I… I don't want at all for this dinner to be ruined, that's not what I'm trying to do," she explained. "I just…really want to know what you're thinking when you bring a partnered girl to a place like this while you say such nice things to me," she continued. Then, she laughed weakly. "My curiosity is getting the better of me," she finished, trying to lighten the conversation even if it were only a little bit.

But if she were telling the truth, it was far more than just her curiosity that was getting the better of her. She looked at the man sitting across from her, and she felt an attraction the likes and depths of which were surely wholly forbidden to someone like her – someone who was someone else's. The guilt made her beg for him to give her answers for his actions.

In response, Atem only folded both of his hands in front of him and placed his forehead against them, taking a deep breath and letting it out in an equally deep sigh.

Anzu looked at him, and concern lined every crease of her face. Why was he hiding his face? Was he…crying?

For some reason, seeing him like that, she felt her heart begin to break. The shock of how sad the dejected look on his face made her feel sent shivers through her body and painted her own expression with worry. She began to tremble, desperately lying in anticipation of his response.

Many moments passed.

"Anzu, please," he started at last.

Anzu immediately looked him straight in the eye, even though his were still closed.

"Please let me attempt to begin to show you how much you mean to me, with this dinner," he finished quietly.


	6. The Urge

Anzu gasped. What exactly…did he mean by that? her mind asked her.

But she knew. It was precisely as he said it. She meant something to him; apparently, a lot. Enough to make her feel like a doted-on princess over the past full day, including at the arcade. Enough to make sure she felt comfortable despite her situation with Seto.

Enough to lay himself bare for her just to ease her worried mind.

"Yugi, I… I'm sorry I questioned your motives," is all she could say in response to such an honest, earnest request.

Atem's lips were in a line, and his eyes reopened to half-heartedly behold the menu lain out on the table before him.

And for the first time in a long time, Atem and Yugi declared something in a unified whisper: "I'm just sorry I didn't ask you first."

"What was that?" Anzu asked, her interest incredibly piqued.

"It was nothing, Anzu. Please, let us decide what we want to eat."

"Yugi, I'd really like to hear what you just said," she pleaded softly.

To this request, Atem only held up his menu slightly. After a while – with his face partially obscured by the menu – he colored.

Both Yugi and Anzu were taken aback.

"Yugi, blushing right now?" Anzu thought, a bit bewildered.

"Atem, blushing at all?!" thought Yugi. His mouth hung open in incredulity, and he thought for a long moment. Surely it couldn't be that…?

"Atem, do you…?"

"I think I'll be fine with the duck," Atem quickly said aloud, interrupting Yugi's intrusive inquiry. He had called it out to the waiter, who had just returned to give them their drinks and take their order.

As Anzu considered the possibilities why Yugi might be blushing in that moment, she faltered. "The duck? Oh, yes, the duck! That sounds lovely." But then, she realized what she just said, what she had almost ordered. "Oh, wait, duck? Umm…I think I'll just have the steak." She was willing to go a bit all out because of the nice restaurant, but she didn't want to be _that_ adventurous tonight.

After all, she was seeing Seto later…

But enough about that, her mind insisted. She was with Yugi now, and he was treating her to an incredibly nice dinner. The fact that she knew Yugi wasn't rich by any means only made it more special to her.

And with that, it was decided. No more suspicions. No more questioning his motives. Anzu was determined to enjoy this dinner for what it was: a welcomed, surprise outing with her best friend, whatever the objectives in his mind, and whatever she felt for Seto…

And for _him_.

The dinner continued far more lightheartedly after that, with Anzu's mind taking a rest from nagging at her and Atem enjoying her company much more than he would want to admit to anyone who asked. He was a pharaoh, after all, and to be so taken in by someone – one whom others from his era would deem a mere civilian – spoke mounds of irony that was not lost on him.

When they received their dishes, Atem was happy, partially because he had received his delicious-looking duck on a shining plane before him, but far more than that, the astounded look on Anzu's face when she received her perfectly-cooked, awe-inspiringly juicy steak made the pharaoh's heart swell.

It had all been worth it for that one look alone.

"This is really mine?" she asked in disbelief.

Atem chuckled. "Yes, it is, Anzu."

She looked up at him, wanting him to clarify what seemed not so obvious to her. "To eat?"

"Yes."

Anzu's whole face lit up, and she broke into a big smile. "Thank you, Yugi."

And before she could think to stop herself, she leaned over the table and kissed him right on the cheek.


	7. The Reaction

Atem sat completely stunned across from her, head spinning, with Yugi inside of it.

Anzu had a peaceful expression on her face as she retracted, but when she sat down and reopened her eyes, she saw Atem's slightly parted lips and wide eyes and mimicked the expression herself.

"Oh m… Yugi, I am _so_ sorry," she said in a panic as the realization of what she had just done dawned upon her, her hands moving to cover her mouth.

"That's… It's…fine…" he mustered, still dazed. Despite all they had talked about, and her connection with Kaiba, she had still kissed him.

What…did it mean?

"I can't… I can't believe I just…" Before she let herself finish, she stood up and began running from the table.

But Atem caught her arm quickly. "Wait," he said, having snapped out of his stupor.

"Anzu…"

"Yugi, I can't; this is all just so confusing for me," she explained in exasperation. But she let him keep her there, her eyes looking into the depths of his for answers to the questions she desperately wanted the answers to, but was afraid to hear.

Atem returned the intensity of her gaze.

"Anzu, if you run, I will come after you."

Anzu's eyes struck wide and she drew a breath.

"So please, save us the legwork and sit back down."

The severity with which he spoke would make her afraid if he was someone, anyone else saying something, anything else.

But he wasn't. He was her best friend, and he was only asking her not to leave him like that.

"We can talk about it," he prodded gently. He had spent much of his energy putting on a commanding tone to the woman of all women in his life standing before him. Now, he just wanted her to feel comfortable again. After all, he was more than comfortable with the affection she had shown him. In fact, he was delighted, and willing to receive as much of it as she was willing to give him. The only question was her conscience as she did so. That was the sole wildcard.

Anzu shared his gaze for a while, then obediently sat back down. As she did, he let go of her wrist.

"Right, talk about it," she repeated, flipping the words over her tongue. "Well, to be honest, I didn't really think about it… I just did it," she admitted sheepishly.

"I…didn't mind, at all," Atem responded, feeling far less eloquent than usual. "I… ** _really_** didn't mind," he underlined, and to say it was an understatement was itself the understatement of the century.

He thought back to the feel of her lips pressed ever so softly against his skin…

His whole body began to stir, and a shudder rippled through from his brain to his tailbone at the thought.

To Anzu, his repeated proclamation made it clear that he definitely didn't mind it, and not only that…but he actually…really liked it. She blushed at the thought of her best friend relishing her affection like that, as if it would affect him after all these years…

Anzu didn't know what else to say to him. He had been so nice to her, and she felt like she had just been a mess of emotions and confusion to him the whole time. She glanced back down at her steak and cursed herself for even considering that she could leave from such a wonderful dinner without even having eaten her painstakingly-acquired first.

"This looks amazing," she explained to Atem, her brows rising as she picked up her utensils and began to cut into her food, settling herself back down in the situation. It was still a bit tense, but it was worth it to keep going, for both of their sakes. After all, they were close, and he deserved her utmost attention after going to such lengths for her.

"I am happy it suits your taste," Atem replied sincerely. He looked down at his own meal and began cutting into it with his silverware in turn, able to relax and enjoy it now that she was staying.

They ate in relative silence, at least compared to how much had happened around the time she had kissed him. Their lack of words didn't mean lack of communication, however. Atem stared at her like she was the last woman on earth, and Anzu couldn't help but notice his looks of adoration as she self-consciously but happily bit into her perfect steak.

Then, Anzu's cell phone suddenly vibrated, breaking her focus on her almost-finished sumptuous dinner and equally enjoyable company. The first thing she garnered from flipping open her phone case was that had been an hour since they had arrived at the restaurant, and it was nearly five-thirty.

The second was that Seto was asking where she was.

She instantly began staring down at her phone with an expression of worry and concern on her face.

Atem noticed. "Anzu, what's wrong?"

"It's Seto. He's asking where I am." She showed him the time on her phone. "It's almost five-thirty."

"Aren't you meeting him at six?"

"Yeah, I am. I don't think he's asking because he's already there, I think he's just curious since it's getting close to our meeting time. Still, I should probably go," she said, disappointment filling her voice to the brim. She had been having a really wonderful time with him.

"I understand," Atem said, having just finished his duck. He waved the waiter over and gave him his card, which Yugi had agreed to beforehand.

As she watched him pay for the lavish meal they just had, Anzu felt guilty about leaving. "Yugi, I really appreciate this. It was amazing." As if to illustrate her point, she popped the last two small pieces of steak from her plate into her mouth.

"It's all right, Anzu. I understand, really," he insisted, standing up as the waiter returned with his card. "Thank you," he said to him, then waved his arm toward the door. "Shall we go, Anzu?"

"Yes, Yugi," she said, smiling all the way out the door of the American restaurant she'd not soon forget, beside the man who had clearly not stopped considering her important to him after all these years.


	8. The Separation

"I'm stuffed," Anzu proclaimed happily. "That was amazing; I feel great." She said, positively glowing, but Atem had already noticed without much effort before she had even said anything. After all, he had been watching her ever since they had left Domino High School several hours ago, and even before then.

He noted her mood with the utmost joy. He was disappointed that their outing had had to end, but would revel in the memory of it for quite some time.

"Anzu, thank you for allowing my day to be…"

 _Almost entirely filled with you_.

"…wonderful," he finished simply, refusing to give voice to his truer thoughts so overtly. "I have enjoyed it immensely."

Anzu looked at him and colored. Now that she was outside with the crisp air hitting her face, she noted that he had been lighting her face on fire all throughout the day, and, though she'd not say it in her current situation, as he said more things like that, she was starting to feel a deep desire to stay back and hear what else he had to say.

But she couldn't, she reminded and reprimanded herself. She had to go see a movie now. With her boyfriend.

So she had to depart from her current company – the one who'd been driving her crazy for the past few hours – to go be in the company of her boyfriend.

"Agh!" she said out loud, but quickly realized her mistake. "Um… I…"

"What is it, Anzu?"

"I'm just…sad to go, is all," she stated earnestly, twisting her body lightly back and forth in her post-dinner high, the dress twirling along with her.

Atem watched her move, entranced. Her gentle swaying made his heart and body sorely ache. Watching her like this…reminded him of a feeling he had been frequent friends with long ago, in his own era. Dancing had a special effect on him.

"Come to think of it, Anzu," he started, "I haven't seen you dance in quite some time, and certainly not for very long."

Anzu blinked. "Me? Dancing?" she asked, looking down. "This? This isn't dancing," she insisted, gazing shyly at her swaying dress for a moment before stopping her movements and straightening out her dress. "That was just some silly back-and-forthing."

"Really?" he asked. "Well. If that's what you call it, then I would very much like to see you dance in a way you consider worthy of the name."

"I…would be honored to have you watch, if you're that interested," she admitted, grabbing the inside of her elbow and grinning at no one in particular. No one had ever claimed themselves to be so interested in her passion before. The thought that her best friend was intrigued by one of the things in life that made her the absolute happiest caused her to smile from ear to ear.

"I should get going now, Yugi. But, I've had a lot of fun," she understated, almost stammering. She didn't know how much more she could comfortably ooze about just how much fun she had had without running the risk of seeming to be flirting with him. And she could never forgive herself for doing that – he was her best friend! They couldn't be together like that, and hinting at even the possibility of it by flirting with him was just so pointless. She'd known him for so long!

"I have too, Anzu," he agreed with a smile. "But before you go, please tell me, because I'm quite serious: when is your next dance practice?"

His question cut her nonsensical daydreaming short. "Uhh," she stated ineloquently. He was serious about wanting to come?

"If you didn't mind me going after all, of course," the tricolor-haired boy added.

"No, of course not!" she stated firmly. "Um, let's see… My next practice is actually tomorrow. I have to practice for a competition in the not-so-distant future, so I'll be in the studio after school."

"Great. Then I'll see you there tomorrow," he said with an ever-widening smile.

And in that moment, with her emotions aflame, his smile so bright and genuine, and the knowledge that she would see him again tomorrow as she danced for him, Anzu's whole being was filled with happiness.

She drew close and smiled at him. Then, she threw her arms around him and hugged him close to her.


	9. The Panic

Atem was speechless. He had been completely taken off his guard by her arms enveloping him, and for several seconds, he couldn't even find his voice.

Then: "A-Anzu…"

But then, he did something that left her just as speechless. He wrapped his arms around her and held her in return, securely, as if she would fall if he didn't hold on.

Her entire face lit on fire. When he held her fast against his chest, she could barely choke out, "Yugi?" But he gave no response.

Anzu looked down, her hair brushing his face. She didn't notice, but Atem welcomed the sensation, and couldn't stop himself from leaning his head down ever so slightly to take in the scent of her shampoo. He filled his lungs with it before exhaling slowly, deeply. Anzu took his profound sigh as a sign to relax, and stop thinking so much.

And yet… Here she was…in Yugi's arms…

 _Finally…_

As soon as it crossed her mind, Anzu drew in a breath, frightened at her own, strange thoughts. Did she really just think that?

But as if to answer her, she couldn't bring herself to break away.

"Yugi…" she called quietly.

And she had to meet Seto, her boyfriend, soon.

And at this rate, her transgressions by the time she got there were going to extend far beyond just being late.

At this sobering realization, finally, she looked up at him.

"Yugi!"

But he still hadn't responded. Not verbally. He looked down into her face and, unbeknownst to her, was suddenly overcome with the strongest desire to brush her bangs back away from her beautiful sapphire eyes with a hand.

But he didn't. He held his hand steadily away from her face and contented himself with continuing to lose himself in her pools of blue.

She called his name again, this time in protest to his overwhelming intensity: "Yugi…" She placed a hand on his chest and began to push ever so slightly against him.

But when she looked up once more, his eyes drew her into a trance and held her there. He looked at her as if seeing nothing else, his arms still wrapped securely around her.

Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. The magnetism almost pained her. She pushed off of him; it was hard enough to extricate herself from him and break free, but lightly enough not to hurt him. Nevertheless, she felt tears welling up in her eyes at what she just experienced, or thought she just experienced – after all, could it have been real? – between them.

The two looked at each other longingly. When at last Anzu began to understand what that look in his crimson eyes might mean, she could only begin to muster the thought… The thought that he…

She had to go. Right now.

"Goodbye, Yugi," she said simply, abruptly, quietly, barely even above a whisper. Before they could say anything more. Before they could look any more into each other's eyes.

She turned and ran away from him in the direction of the movie theater.


	10. The Confrontation

Atem stared after her. He couldn't shake the feeling that their time together had gone incredibly well, yet awoken some very deep fears in both of them.

What were they doing?

"And you tried to call _me_ out on that kind of thinking," a sudden voice scolded in his head.

Atem's lips parted. "Yugi?" With a start, he realized his aibou had been silent for quite some time, starting right around when Anzu…

 _Oh._

"Yeah, it's me," the voice affirmed, its tone far less friendly and boyish than usual.

Atem shoved his hands into his pockets. For the first time in his not-so-short history of all his interactions with the younger boy, he felt sheepish.

"What happened back there?" Yugi asked directly, curious yet clearly serious.

"I… Well…"

"Atem."

Atem looked up at the boy in his mental link at the sound of his real name. He deserved enough respect from the pharaoh to receive eye contact when speaking to him directly. "Yes, Yugi?" He felt that calling him "aibou" in a time like this might set the younger male off.

"Did you get me to do all this so _you_ could reap the results?" Yugi asked, point-blank.

Atem sighed. He was caught, at least partially. "Ai…Yugi, I will not lie to you: my goals were not entirely about your gain."

Yugi's lips pursed in anger. He knew it. But even more than angry, he felt sad. He cast his gaze down at the ground, exhaling slowly, feeling defeated even though he had come so far.

"Yugi, please, do not take it that way. Let me explain."

Yugi waited, but he wasn't expecting the pharaoh to say anything that would possibly make him feel better.

Damn it, he _knew_ how he felt about Anzu, and _still_ he had decided to be selfish. How could he _do_ that to him?

"I cannot lie and say that I had no intention of flirting with her," Atem started to explain, "but in the fullest truth, I wasn't thinking only of myself, either."

When the voice in his head didn't respond, the pharaoh continued, "What I gain, you gain. And in the same way, everything you did for her yesterday and earlier today benefited me." His brows knit in conviction. "We are connected, Yugi. You know she treats us as two sides of the same coin, even if she knows otherwise."

Yugi was entrenched in thought, considering each syllable of his words. Was he being sincere, or just doing this for his personal gain?

Sensing his suspicion, Atem sighed. "I don't expect you to believe me after what you may have witnessed me do or say during that dinner," he said, ignoring the blush starting to stain his face again. "But, I implore you to consider how Anzu treated you and me as the same throughout the day, no matter which of us was in physical command."

Yugi looked to the side. He was right about that, at least. Each time they had switched places, Anzu had barely batted an eye. She had looked at him differently for a short while, sure, but she always went back to acting like everything was normal and like he was the same person after just a minute or two. For a moment, he felt his anger and sadness lessen as he thought more about it. Maybe it could even be an advantage.

As if to try and hammer home his point, Atem said simply, "We are not on opposite sides, Yugi. You are, in more ways than one, my aibou."

Yugi felt himself color a little. The pharaoh was right: both of them seemed to be the winners in the situation with making Anzu feel properly special. And since it was a two-way street, maybe he shouldn't mind so much if the pharaoh was sweeping her off his feet a bit more elegantly than he himself could sometimes. Especially since each time he did, Yugi learned from it; he found out more about what made Anzu feel shy, and the thought of learning her ins and outs – to the point where he could make her blush like a schoolgirl because of something he himself did – set his heart and mind aflame.

"Please do not look at this as a rivalry, but instead a strength. When you feel a little overwhelmed, like at the restaurant, I can help you. But in the same way, you will be able to come to my aid if I ever feel unsettled."

But his last words were unnecessary; Yugi was already sold. "All right, Atem, I understand, and I think you're right," he said, able to smile again. "Thank you. From now on, we do everything together, as a team," he declared solidly.

Atem smiled in turn, nodding his passionate agreement.

"Besides, who else can say they have an Egyptian pharaoh on their side to help them when they're feeling weak?" Yugi mused with a smirk, rubbing the backside of his head. "I'm pretty lucky, actually. You probably know all kinds of stuff that I don't."

"I am not quite as omniscient as you think. I was very young myself in my own era." But Atem appreciated the compliment nonetheless.

"Did you interact with many girls in Egypt?"

The pharaoh chuckled at the question. "Well," he started slyly, narrowing his eyes and touching his finger to his chin. "There was this one…" He pretended to be digging from the deepest, buried depths of his mind for such a piece of unimportant, banal information.

Yugi's face was so cheery in his tangible curiosity that one could hardly tell he had been thoroughly upset just mere minutes before. "Really? What was she like?"

Atem only smirked and shook his head.

"Oh, c'mon, Pharaoh! You can tell me!"

Yugi and Atem walked together back to Yugi's house, the younger pressuring the older the entire time to espouse more details, but it was a losing battle.


	11. The Guilt

Yugi woke up the next day, and nearly leapt out of his bed. Today he would get to see Anzu dance!

As fast as he could, and paying no attention to the time whatsoever, he took a shower, scarfed down his breakfast, and launched himself out of the door.

When he reached the school grounds, it was as if his spell faded. He suddenly toppled over and started panting hard. "Phew… I don't know what's come over me today."

"I do," answered the pharaoh. The two shared a grin.

Yugi straightened himself and marched to class confidently. During the past two days, he had had a lot of success in showing Anzu what she meant to him, and he was hoping to continue the trend. His mind had memorized every last detail of her face every time she had stammered because of him, or was rendered speechless.

When he arrived to the classroom, however, Anzu was hunched over her desk, her face hidden from view. She wasn't in her dress anymore, but rather was wearing her comfortable dancing clothes.

Yugi felt something was amiss, but he didn't think it was safe to assume anything. He briefly scanned the room for Kaiba, then called out to her. "Hey, Anzu!"

Anzu's head moved up slightly, but she didn't look at him, nor did she reply.

Immediately, Yugi looked concerned. "Anzu?"

She kept her head down.

Given the circumstances of what happened yesterday, he felt a mound of an unpleasant feeling bubbling up inside of him – that maybe, he shouldn't be surprised at all.

Maybe he already knew exactly what was wrong.

He was about to walk over to her, but when he lifted his foot, Atem held him back. "Wait, aibou. I don't think that would be wise. Let her be alone for a little while."

The tricolor-haired boy gazed at her wistfully, but nodded. He sullenly walked to his desk and sat down, just as Kaiba entered the classroom and took his own seat next to the window.

 _I wonder what happened last night_ , Yugi's mind started firing, _after she left._

Atem pursed his lips. "I agree, I am curious. But asking her about it in any form would not be wise."

Yugi put his chin in his hand. "You're right."

Anzu spent the entire class period barely moving. When the teacher had called on Yugi to read a passage aloud in English class, hearing his voice for such a prolonged period – and for the first time after their time together the day before – consumed her last strand of sanity.

"Damn it," she said, pounding her desk lightly, frustrated that she couldn't do it harder in school. How could she have done _anything_ she did yesterday?

That look in his eyes had made it no question. It had been a date.

Anzu had received a dress the night prior from her boyfriend, and the first person who saw her in it during their time together was not the man who bought it for her, and asked her to a movie the night after. No, the first person to have seen her in it on a date had been _Yugi_. Seto had bought her a dress that she wore on a date with _Yugi_!

She felt like a horrible person. To make matters worse, she would be lying through her teeth if she claimed she didn't enjoy everything they did, and every single bite of that delicious steak. Even thinking about it now made her salivate; she could hardly remember the last time she'd had such gourmet food.

 _The nerve!_ Anzu thought. At long last, she looked up and spun around, glaring daggers at Yugi.

The movement in the corner of his eye – that was Anzu's seat! – made Yugi look up as well, and stop reading. "Anzu?" He registered the anger in her wide sapphire eyes.

"Mutou?"

"Sorry!" he apologized quickly. But after that, it was hard for him to concentrate on reading. He let out a sigh of relief when another student's name was called. By the time he was finished, though, Anzu had already faced away from him again.

"Why did she look so mad?" Yugi mused lowly.

Atem wasn't much help to him then, as his features were drawn into a fierce look of concentration.

The rest of school was tense. Not only did Anzu ignore him all day – save for that one look of irritation – but Jonouchi and Honda had noticed that all was not well between the two best friends.

The one positive thing about this day was that Kaiba hadn't said a word to him, nor had his actions even hinted that he knew anything about what happened the day before. At the very least, that fact was on Yugi's side.

"Hey, Atem," Yugi said in a barely-audible whisper.

"Hm?"

"What should we do?"

Atem looked at the clock. "Well… We don't want to assume she's still all right with us joining her in the dance studio…so we should probably verify whether that's even going to happen anymore." He frowned. "Unfortunately, that means we'll have to talk to her, and it seems like she's still very much upset."

"I doubt she'd want me there now…" Yugi lamented. "I think our plan to make her feel happy…did nothing but make her feel guilty."


	12. The Cheerleaders

The two of them were locked in silence for some time. For awhile, it was as if Yugi could barely feel Atem in his head at all.

When class was over and they had a short break, most of the students cleared out of the room, including Kaiba and Anzu.

But not all of them.

"Hey, Yuge," came a familiar voice. Yugi cast his eyes in the direction of the sound to see Jonouchi grinning down at him.

"Hi, Jonouchi," replied somberly.

The pocky stick in Jonouchi's mouth switched sides. "Yuge, come on, snap out of it and tell us what happened."

Honda budged in. "Yeah; we've never seen you two so mad at each other. It's really got us all stuffed up with worry."

" _Me_? I'm not mad!" Yugi insisted. " _She's_ mad at _me_!"

"Oh. Okay," Honda said, exchanging confused glances with Jonouchi. "But why?"

Yugi's expression returned to being dismal. "Well…"

"It has somethin' to do with yesterday, doesn't it?"

The tricolor-haired boy relented. "Yeah…probably…"

"Then what happened?" Jonouchi pressured, Honda nodding vigorously at his side.

"I took her…on a date," he admitted.

"A **_date_**?!" the blonde teen shouted.

"S-shhhh-shhh-shhh!" Yugi stammered, casting a glance quickly around the room and rushing to plug his friend's mouth with another pocky stick. Jonouchi insubordinately bit it in half.

"A date?" Honda repeated, quieter this time. "I knew it! That's exactly what it looked like you two were doing, sneaking out of class all secretive-like! Where did you go?"

"That new American restaurant, about half an hour's walk from here."

"The American restaurant?! The new one over by the movie theater?"

"Yeah."

Both of his friends looked perplexed. Then, Jonouchi butted in. "Wait a sec, Yuge. You're telling me you managed to ask Anzu to go with ya on a date to one of the fanciest new places in town… _when she's dating Kaiba_?" When Honda comprehended what the rambunctious blonde said, his eyes shone with pride. He nearly high-fived Jonouchi before catching a glimpse of the look on Yugi's face.

"…Oh. I get it now. That's why she's mad."

"I think so," the boy said, deflated even more now that his friends knew what a shameful thing he had done. He wanted to bury his face in his hands and disappear from the world for a long time.

"But she went, right? So why's she mad at you f'r that?"

"To be honest…I never told her I meant for it to be a date…and she didn't know _where_ we were going. She probably just assumed I was going to take her to Burger World for some innocent chit-chat."

Jonouchi grinned and gigged. "Instead of bein' taken to a fancy restaurant by our one and only lionhearted Yugi to– What did you guys end up doin' anyway?" the teen interrupted himself, realizing he had no idea what happened after they got there.

Yugi blushed slightly, but it wasn't even near the shade his cheeks held with Anzu the day before. "I might have flirted with her a little, and told her that I would pay for her…and told her the truth, that she was really important to me."

"Yugi, wow," Jonouchi said, using his friend's full name properly in his surprise. "That does seem heavy. But…I gotta admit, I still don't see why she'd get mad."

Yugi nodded in understanding, continuing: "Well…she may have felt flattered enough to kiss me. Granted, it was only on the cheek, but…"

"Anzu _kissed_ you?!" Honda nearly shouted, then obediently placed a hand over his mouth when Yugi panicked and chastised him with his large, sad eyes.

Seeing that look in his eye made both of his friends feel really sorry about the whole situation.

"Yugi, that sounds like a great date. I don't get it. Why would she be angry now?"

"Because she's dating Kaiba! And though she seemed to have a really good time, that's all the more reason she probably feels guilty," Yugi almost got caught up in his own fervor and yelled himself, but somehow managed to rein himself in at the last second.

Yugi's explosion rendered the two boys silent for a long time.

"Sorry," Yugi whispered sadly when he noted their shock.

But instead of being discouraged from talking by the duelist's shouting them into silence, Jonouchi felt rejuvenated. "Yuge, everyone can see how much this means to you. I know Anzu's had your eye for a long time, ever since you two was kids."

Yugi looked up, unsure what he was trying to say.

"And everything seemed to go just right except for how she felt about Kaiba when it happened, right?"

Yugi nodded, but his eyes narrowed in confusion.

"Well then, that can only mean one thing!" he said as he clenched his fist in the air.

The tricolored-haired boy felt a bit timid in the face of Jonouchi's sudden vehemence. What was he saying?

"Yugi, you gotta get Kaiba out of the picture."

Yugi's eyes widened. "Jonouchi, you're not saying…"

"Get her to stop dating that stuck-up Scrooge."

At this outrageous suggestion, Yugi stood up, splaying his hands flat on his desk. "Jonouchi, I can't do that! That's Anzu's boyfriend!" He gritted his teeth, thinking back to the nice things Anzu said about Kaiba during their date. "She even seems to be happy with him!"

Thinking of what could have happened made him feel ten times worse than he already did. He looked down at his hands, wanting to cry. "And I almost took that away from her. What if Kaiba had found out? He'd be so mad at her," he said hopelessly as a droplet fell onto his hand, "all because of _me_ ," he finished in disgust. He felt his voice break and had to stop talking.

Embarrassed, Yugi brought his hand up to his face. "I feel so rotten," he said, closing one eye as he wiped it on his hand. "What have I done?" He gave up on getting rid of his tears and buried his face in his hands.

Jonouchi and Honda looked devastated for him. "Yugi…"

They watched in guilty silence as their friend cried his eyes out, his shoulders being overtaken by almost violent tremors.

Jonouchi couldn't take it anymore. He looked desperately at Honda, urging him to say something.

"We didn't mean to disrespect him, Yugi, we just know you're…" But they didn't think Yugi was even listening to them, so powerful was his trembling.

Jonouchi finally spoke up. "Come on, Yuge. Let's get you out of here." They both took an arm and pulled a little to start him walking, then surrounded him on both sides, getting in the way when anyone tried to look at poor Yugi in the hall.

When they got outside, the two let go of his arms and took the chance of looking into his face again. He was a mess, tears and all streaming down his face. Jonouchi took out some leftover bandages he had never used for wrapping his finger in a recent injury and held them out to Yugi.

"Here, Yuge."

"T-Thank you, Jonouchi."

"No problem. They might be a little bit rough, but they're better than nothin'."

"I really appreciate it. You too, Honda. Thank you for covering me." Yugi wiped the bandages softly against his face. "You two don't know how much something like that means to me right now, when it feels like my world is crashing down."

"Yugi, this is your ball game, and we respect that. But please, just hear us out on this one thing. You love Anzu."

At those words, Yugi's eyes struck wide and he looked up at Honda. "I-I…"

"Don't even bother denyin' it, Yugi. We both know you do. It ain't somethin' you can hide." Jonouchi's face was sly, but his voice was calm, and serious.

"So just remember what you can offer her, that no one else can, okay? She's been your shinin' star for a long time."

Yugi gasped.

 _"You now know your worth going into this, aibou. You are not the lesser choice. Not by a long shot. But you are also not necessarily better than Kaiba. You are both simply different people…but only one of you knows Anzu like a dearly beloved friend."_

 _Atem…_

"I think you know what you wanna do next already, because you're you; you can feel it in your heart. I don't know what you're gonna do. But…just don't forget what we said, alright?" Jonouchi said in a rare, commanding tone. "We're behind ya on this."

Yugi sniffled one last time, determined to first stop crying before anything else. "I won't. Thanks, you guys." He managed a smile at his two friends, who were obviously doing whatever they could to help him feel better.

"Anytime, Yuge. We'll catch ya later, alright?"

Yugi nodded. "Bye!"

With that, Jonouchi and Honda left to go home. Yugi looked after them for a while before feeling magnetically drawn to the dance studio.

In that moment, he wondered what Atem was up to. He hadn't heard, or felt, anything from him since earlier in the day.

But he wouldn't be distracted. The encounter with his friends had taught him one thing: he had to at least have the guts to find out if he was still allowed to watch her dance. He wouldn't miss that for the world if she'd still let him go. Even though he wasn't confident at all that she'd want to even see him, he had to know for sure.

Yugi began making his way to the dance studio, trying to prepare himself mentally for either outcome. He was used to Atem offering his say when it came to Anzu over the past few days, and the unusual silence in his mind both worried and scared him. But he was determined to have this conversation with Anzu, pharaoh or not.

He pushed on, ideally hoping to find Anzu before she entered the dance studio. He wouldn't feel very welcome to go inside if he hadn't asked her first, especially not in front of her friends. If she cast him out after that point, he'd be really embarrassed to have everyone in the dance class see it happen.

 _Almost there…_ he thought, his heart pounding.


	13. The Seed

"Are you going to be long?"

"Well, I want to make sure I'm at least a little ahead of anyone else who's going to compete."

To this, Kaiba looked sullen.

"U-Uh… No, I don't think so," she corrected. "It should only take me an hour or two."

"Then you'll be able to join me after work?"

"Yes, I think so," Anzu affirmed, but she was a bit unsure. She definitely wanted to practice for longer than just an hour or two today, and was hoping for maybe three, or better yet, four. With breaks, of course.

But it was so hard to spend quality time with him. He never pressured her to do it, but she found herself consistently changing her plans by an hour here, a day there, to make sure she could fit into the gaps in his schedule. After the hour at the arcade – where he stayed upstairs the whole time anyway – and the two hours at the movies, he had had to go back to work to "fix some bugs in a build" he "deployed". Anzu wasn't entirely certain what he meant by that, but she knew he had to work very hard, sometimes late into the night when the day renewed itself. An hour here and there is all she could really ask for, and she guessed that that was all she really wanted.

It did frustrate her a little that he was leaving now, since his work didn't start for at least another hour. He had enough time to watch her for a short while, but said he had to "prepare" for work. Anzu sighed. He had already changed into his work clothes the minute school ended, what more could he do to prepare when he didn't bring his laptop from the office today?

Kaiba gave her a smirk. "Then I'll see you later," he said, turning to leave. When he did, however, he suddenly spotted a flash of color a little bit off from the center of his vision.

"Yugi?" he called to it.

Yugi tried to hide in the shadows of the school building, pretending he was just passing by. "Oh, hi Kaiba," he said, keeping his voice as even as possible.

When she heard his voice, she was startled. She had the inclination to fold her arms and glare at him to underline how afraid of her he should be right now, but when Kaiba took another step and moved out of her field of vision, she saw him for herself.

Nervous. Hiding. His face wet from...

…Crying?

The sight rammed a stake through Anzu's heart, and brought her back to her senses. "Yugi!" she shouted, her arms uncrossing as she ran over to him as fast as possible to assess the damage.

Yugi desperately tried to hide his face from her, her worried persona making him remember how terrible and runny it looked right now.

Kaiba stayed back and watched the two of them with a careful eye from a distance. At his rival's obvious, faltering countenance, he allowed himself a smirk.

"Looks like you've been crying," he said plainly.

"Seto!" Anzu scolded. "There's no need to be mean-spirited," she said as she caught up to Yugi. "What happened, Yugi?"

"Anzu," he started. "I just…wanted to ask if I could still…you know, watch you today," he said quietly, keeping his voice down so Kaiba couldn't hear.

"Oh, Yugi...I don't think that's a good idea," she said softly. "I'm sorry."

Well, there was his answer.

Yugi nodded, his heart contracting. "It's okay. I understand. I figured I'd ask anyway."

When his voice got even quieter than before, Anzu's eyebrows knit in painful sympathy. "Yugi… I really appreciate you coming to ask, though."

To this, Yugi forced a small smile. In the corner of his eye, he saw Kaiba start to move again. "I suppose he's going to work again, huh?"

"No," Anzu answered. Yugi looked confused. "He doesn't go in for another hour. He has some…other business to take care of before then, I guess." The expression on her face as she said this was not lost on her best friend.

"'Other business'?" Yugi repeated, his own face mirroring her confusion.

Just then, Kaiba shouted, "You two can stop whispering," he said, hostility coating his voice. "I'm leaving now." He was confident that snot-nosed Yugi in that moment couldn't muster doing anything that he wouldn't like, not with tear trails still apparent on his cheeks.

But Kaiba was stopped by a sudden shout, "You're not going to watch Anzu dance?"

It was Yugi.

He turned to the tricolor-haired boy and said nothing, daring him to continue.

"Aren't you going to watch…Anzu dance?" Yugi said, his voice growing quieter, but his astonishment only grew when he perceived the look in Kaiba's eyes.

He didn't even seem to care.

"I'm busy," Kaiba said simply through semi-pursed lips.

What Kaiba couldn't see is how his reply had torn through Anzu's chest. Her eyes began to well up with tears.

Yugi looked up into her face. With a hand, he started to reach out to wipe her first tear away, but stopped himself. It pained him.

 _No_ , his brain stated firmly. There was no wavering in its sudden inclination.

 _He can't do this to her._

He wanted to yell, "Kaiba!" To have a showdown right then and there and call him out for the inconsiderate miser he was. But looking into Anzu's face, his far deeper desire was to do anything to stop her tears. For that end, he reined himself in. Getting into a shouting match with her boyfriend was hardly the way to make her feel better right now.

"I'm going," Kaiba said after the prolonged silence lingered. He hadn't seen Anzu's face, so there was nothing bogging down his mind as he walked away and left the two of them alone.

When Kaiba was out of earshot, Anzu sucked in a sharp breath, which startled Yugi. Then, she fell forward onto his shoulders and began crying in earnest.

"Yugi- _i_ ," she cried inelegantly, her face buried in his shoulder.

"Anzu…" he said softly. Before he could stop it, he had put his hand on top of her hair. "Anzu, please…" he pleaded.

When she didn't show any sign of stopping, he felt like crying again himself. His heart was broken because hers was.

"Please don't cry…"

"It's just…" Anzu attempted to explain, but her choked-up and phlegmy voice prevented her from uttering anything else.

"Don't talk, shh…" Yugi said gently, patting her hair with an almost butterfly-light touch.

He wanted so desperately to pull her into her arms and hug her close to him again, to comfort her with his whole body and the warmth he could provide her rather than just a few, awkward touches on her head. But he couldn't bring himself to risk any disrespect she might perceive toward her, his shining star.

Before Yugi knew it, he felt a tugging at his mind.

Anzu sniffled into his shoulder a little while longer. But when she finally opened her eyes once more, she almost jumped a little.

"Anzu…would you mind if I held you again?"

In front of her, replacing the person into whom she had just buried her tear-stained face, stood the pharaoh.


	14. The Warmup

"Yugi," she mused under her breath.

Atem stood before her, his face concerned.

In his mind, he called out, "Come on, Yugi, my aibou. We'll do this one together. She doesn't deserve to be left to cry."

His familiar's brain spun for a few moments, but then, he responded with an emphatic nod of agreement. "It's good to hear you again, Pharaoh," he said, smiling.

"Maybe…we should move somewhere else," Anzu offered after her initial shock had passed. "I wouldn't mind a little company now, in the dance studio."

Atem blinked. "Will there not be company there?"

She shook her head. "No. There's no formal dance practice until tomorrow night. I just wanted to get a leg up on the other contenders. The dance team members all have a key, though."

The pharaoh's eyes shone with sudden understanding. "Oh."

"So…let's go," she said, wiping a stray tear from her eye.

"You mean…you're willing to let me watch you again?"

Anzu colored a little when he said it like that, but nodded. "Mhm. Follow me," she said, walking the rest of the short distance to the dance studio.

Atem's face turned from worry to joy. He made quick work of following her.

Anzu unlocked the studio with her key and opened the door. The lights were off and they couldn't see anything, but that was an easy fix. She flipped the light switch and walked inside, throwing her bag on top of the bleachers. It was a little bit cold, but she'd warm up soon enough on the dance floor.

The pharaoh poked his head inside, analyzing the studio as if it were a lion's den. Then, he stepped foot inside.

Anzu laughed at his odd behavior. "It's not going to grow teeth, you know. Come in."

He obeyed, closing the door and walking over to where she stood. "It's lovely. I can see that there is plenty of space in here to dance."

The brunette nodded, giggling at his long-winded wording. Then, she looked down at her feet for a second before returning her eyes to his level.

"What is it?"

"You know…that question you just asked me, outside?"

Atem nodded. He knew exactly which one she was referring to.

"You can…if you want to," she said in a whisper so quiet he almost had to strain to hear her.

Atem took a breath. Without wasting another second, he stepped forth and enveloped her in his arms, immediately closing his eyes as the sensation of _her_ swallowed him whole. Yugi breathed out with him, both of them floored by the feeling.

Anzu was taken aback by the suddenness of it. She didn't think he'd do it so…quickly, with barely any hesitation.

"If only I could take your tears away like I can this cold air…"

He was right: if the air was cold now, she could barely feel it here, locked away protectively in his arms. The composure of her face shattered. Anzu colored a deep red that only flushed darker when he squeezed her lightly against him, as if to emphasize his point.

"I think you're…very capable…" Anzu started, "of doing whatever you put your mind to," she finished honestly, though she was embarrassed at how silly it had sounded.

"Am I?" Atem asked, peeking out from behind his thick shutters ever so slightly again.

She nodded.

"Then am I capable of easing your mind so that you no longer cry?" he asked, pulling away just enough to look right into her face.

Anzu's heart was floored. She was touched at his innocuous, very sincere question. In the glee that filled her, she laughed.

"Yes," she affirmed.

"I am?"

She looked up into his face, holding his gaze calmly despite her rapidly beating heart. She nodded, then cast her gaze downward, the top of her hair brushing against his nose.

Atem inhaled just at the right moment, sending the luxurious scent of her shampoo coursing through him again. His whole body relaxed.

"I'm glad I could be of any help," he stated. Since she wasn't crying anymore, he felt it safest to let her go again.

As soon as she was released, she missed him.

"Right, I guess I should start," she said, her mind still in a daze from his lingering warmth.

"What kind of dance must you do for the competition?" the pharaoh inquired.

"The waltz. Do you know it?" she asked.

"No. I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with dancing. However…"

"However?" Anzu pressed.

"I'd be very interested in seeing it."

Anzu smiled. "Certainly."

And with that, she practically twirled toward the one computer left on a small table near the bleachers.

Atem watched her, and immediately his eyes tracked her as if she were moving in mere slow motion. He took a deep breath and – without meaning to – held it.

With a few swift clicks, she opened a music player and readied the cursor at the play button.

"On my mark, can you click play?" she asked.

"Of course."

"Great. Let me get ready." Over the next several minutes, Anzu performed a stretching routine, some of which the pharaoh had never seen before, even in Egypt where there were many highly talented dancers.

And among them…

Anzu first stretched out her arms, then moved onto her legs, the most important part. All the little bits and pieces in between were taken care of in a final wrap-up stretch routine.

Then, she was finished. She looked over at him, and was surprised to see him still standing in the same spot as he had been before, not having moved an inch.

"Okay," she said. "Now."

 _Click._

As "A Thousand Years", the first song of the playlist, began, she got into position.

While the song readied itself, Anzu began stepping, simply at first, but then venturing into more complex movements after her first twirl.

As she danced, he couldn't help but listen to the words of the song, matching them to her fluid movements across the floor. He felt beyond entranced: she now had a hold on his heart that was five fingers strong and not budging an inch, and with every few steps, she seemed to be caressing his beating core with the gentlest touch.

The next few minutes were lost to Atem, so occupied was his mind. His feet were frozen where he stood, but the rest of him was very much on fire as he watched her performance with unfaltering interest.

"You're an angel…" he whispered to himself. He smiled.

When the song was finished, she had him click again.

"Well, how was that?" she asked.

"That was...mesmerizing."

Anzu's eyes flashed. It was quite a loaded response.

"T-thank you…" she replied. Her body was flushed, and as she looked more into his heavy expression, she knew it wasn't only from the dancing.

Suddenly, she had an idea.

"Do you want to try?" she asked, craning her neck to look into his face, which was glazed over with a preoccupied stare.

Yugi's voice came through in the pharaoh's mind, having been released from his own daze mere seconds ago. "I-I'm not very good at dancing!" he stammered.

"Neither am I," Atem responded. "But…"

"I'd be willing to try," he answered her.

Her eyes grew wide. "Really?"

"I cannot guarantee any expertise in my movements, but I would love for you to teach me."

Anzu clapped her hands together, grinning wildly like it was her birthday and everyone had given her exactly what presents she wanted.

"Okay, okay, okay," she said excitedly. "Come over here," she beckoned. The pharaoh obeyed.

"All right, so, like I said, this is waltz. More specifically, Viennese Waltz, so it's going to be a little fast, unfortunately," she explained. "But we'll take it slow and make sure you get it before we go full speed," she added, hoping not to have scared him off already.

"I will follow your movements."

"Uh, actually, we'll be doing opposite movements. You'll be leading and I'll be following, since I already know both roles and I never get to follow." She moved to mirror his body.

Atem looked at her, confused at what he should do.

"Um… Nevermind, here," she said, facing the same way he was again. "Just, mm, follow me. These are the lead's steps. First thing you're going to do is watch me do it, then we'll do it together."

He nodded.

"So, the first thing we do is go forward, two, three, four, five, six. We stop here on the sixth step to prepare to do something different. Then we move into what we call a box step, which is like this: forward, two, three, and back, two, three. And this is all done to the one-two-three one-two-three beat of the music. Got that so far?"

"I…think so. So it's one, two…" He began to move forward.

"Three, four, five, six," Anzu started to chant alongside him, rushing to join him on the step he was on.

"Now stop here, and remember, box step. That's forward, two, three, back, two, three." Atem tried to imitate her box step.

"Try not to bounce with your knees too much as you move: you want to keep your head roughly at the same height when you do your box step instead of dipping lower between steps." The pharaoh nodded, trying again.

"Forward, two, three, back, two, three," he said, trying to keep in full control of his feet, and his height, as he danced. He wasn't used to moving them this way.

"That's really good! You've only just started and that's not bad at all!" Anzu cheered him on, smiling from ear to ear. She was having so much fun already.

"Okay, that's the basic step. Remember that, alright?" He nodded.

"Now let me teach you the frame for this dance."

"The frame?"

"That's how you hang onto your partner."

At this, even the pharaoh couldn't help but flush. "My…partner?"

"Yeah, your dancing partner. Though you can do it alone, the Viennese Waltz is really a partner dance."

"I…see." While he felt her eyes on him, Atem pretended to be very interested in a spot on the wall.

"The frame is nice and strong. Raise your left arm _hiiigh_ up, and stick it out to the side, like this. But don't forget to bend your elbow slightly." He nearly did it, but she stepped forth for a second to lightly grab his arm and reposition it so it was more bent and horizontal. Atem's rubbed his lips together a bit nervously when she did so.

Now, since they both looked like whacked-out crossing guards, Anzu couldn't help but laugh before continuing. "Alright, now, hold up your right arm and pretend there's a person in front of you. Put that arm around them, with your hand right on their imaginary shoulder blade."

Atem closed his eyes for a brief moment, and imagined Anzu just in front of him. He wrapped his right arm around her back and settled his hand on her shoulder blade, breathing out gently as he remembered the still-fresh feel of her pressed against his chest.

"Perfect! You've got it!" she enthused. He opened his eyes again. "Okay, now remember the steps we just learned? Don't drop your frame just yet," she cautioned as she spotted his left arm starting to droop. He nodded, eyes wide at her astute observation. He had barely relaxed.

"Alright, we're going to do the same steps as before, but this time, we're going to keep our frame as solid as we can. This may seem silly to do when we're not dancing with a partner, but it has a really good purpose that I'll tell you later, once we get this down a bit more."

"Okay, ready? Here we go."

Atem began counting again. "Forward, two, three…"

"Four, five, six, box, two, three, four, five, six. Good job; let's try it again while not lowering our frame at all. First, though: do you prefer 'forward, two, three, back, two, three' for the box, or 'box, two, three, four, five, six'? I'd like to teach others how to do this, and I'm not sure which one is less confusing."

"The second," he replied.

"Okay, that's helpful to know. Any particular reason why? I'm just curious."

Atem's gaze drifted as he thought. "It helps me remember the step to switch to is called a box step. After doing it the first time, it was easy to remember that you go forward first and then back, so it seems unnecessary to say it again." He mused for a second longer, then added, "Also, that way, it is more consistent with the label for the moves before it."

"Right, because the basic step has the same count in that case. Okay, thank you for your input!" she said, beaming at him.

Atem returned her bright expression. He was happy to help her clear up any uncertainties she had about dancing, or about teaching others how to.

Over the next ten minutes, the two of them did the same steps, over and over again, and Anzu just gave Atem corrections on how to better his form. She felt that was more important than teaching him more advanced steps.

"Hand down."

"More horizontal, please."

"Don't forget to keep your height level."

"Imagine it wrapped around their back."

"Bend the elbow a little more."

"Now try to rotate as you do your box step instead of making right angles."

"Yeah, that's it."

"Great!"

Within a few more minutes, he was ready for the real test: doing it to music.

"Yes! I think we're ready!" came the awaited, excited proclamation.

Atem was relieved. He didn't know how much more self-conscious he could possibly be than he already was about his dancing position before Anzu the Fastidious was satisfied.

"May I…put my arms down, for a moment?" he asked, having begun to sweat.

Anzu almost snorted. "Yeah, of course, sure," she giggled. "But don't forget how you had them!" she followed up quickly, pointing an accusing finger at him.

His arms froze in place at her threatening addendum, then finally fell to his sides when she turned to go ready the music. He stretched them out of their sockets a little bit, then did the same with his legs.

Anzu could tell what he was doing behind her back; she had done the same when she first started learning. "Don't worry; it gets more natural once you've done it a little while. You won't have to think about it so much; it'll be easy-peasy," she assured as she pushed the left mouse button.

The song played its languid opening. "Okay, we're going to take a break from stepping and holding our frame for a bit and focus on hearing the beats in the music. The beats to a Viennese Waltz song are very evenly-spaced, and each one, we'll be moving pretty far. The dance requires a lot of room because of the big steps, so it's good that we have a big studio to work with." Atem nodded.

The meat of the song came on over the speakers, and Anzu began to say, "One, two, three, one, two, three" in tandem with the beats. She encouraged him to do the same. He did, and soon, he was enveloped in a sense of enlightenment. He could see how this appealed to Anzu: the regular beat and energetic, fast-paced steps fit her personality quite well.

After half a minute of speaking to the beat, she instead began to move her hand to it and hummed the beat instead. At first, the gesture was broad and almost randomly shaped, but then, as it grew more and more regular, it took on a more recognizable form, and what was once her hand transformed into the image of them dancing.

 _One, two, three, one, two, three…_ was all he could hear in his head as he watched the luxurious daydream of the two of them move.

"I want that," he said under his breath.

But, keen to listen to anything she could garner from his input, Anzu had heard. Still, with an incomplete statement like that…she had to affirm the contents.

"What?"

"I want to dance with you."

Her expression filled with wonder. "You…you do?"

"Absolutely," he said. There was no uncertainty in his voice.

"Then…we will!" she said shyly.

Atem lit up. He would be able to dance with her?

"Let's just make sure we can have you do the steps to the music, then we can pair up!" she announced, her cheeks warm.

"Let me try," he said. He resumed his dancing frame, ironing out the pieces she had had him focus on for a few seconds before continuing, then started to count in his head in time with the music.

 _One, two, three, four, five, six…_

He began his basic step, moving forward with big steps as he had been instructed. On "six", he prepared to switch gears, and with the next beat, he started his box step.

 _Box, two, three, four, five, six…_

When he had finished his box step, Anzu jumped up and down once, clapping fanatically.

"I'm so _happy_!" she positively squeed.

Atem put down his arms and faced her. "I'm very glad to see you so happy, Anzu." He was elated himself at having made her react that way because of his dancing. He felt a new type of bond with her begin to form – they could talk about dancing together, now that he had at least the fundamentals of what to focus on and how to hear the beat in the music down.

"So," the pharaoh began, holding his hand out to her. "May I have this dance?"


	15. The Dance

Anzu stared at his hand. She would really be dancing with Yugi now. She couldn't believe it.

"Yes, you may," she answered, placing her hand in his and looking into his eyes with new purpose. Now he was not only her best friend, but also her dance partner.

He pulled her gently forward and brought her close to him using her hand, and she crashed into him, her left hand finding the back of his arm, and his hand finding hers, their fingers wrapping around each other. Slowly, he moved his right arm from his side and slid it around her back, his hand coming to rest on her partially-exposed shoulder blade. Her skin was warm to the touch.

Atem felt a familiar ache fill his body and soul.

The song Anzu had put on to help Atem practice hearing the beat ended, and a new one had taken its place. When the next one came on, they would start their own personal path to paradise, dancing in each other's arms, held close to one another.

The brunette shied at Yugi's hold on her, which was pretty solid. Now that she was much, much closer in proximity to him than before, she spoke with a volume no higher than just above a whisper.

"The key to partner dancing, is that the leader decides what happens," she explained.

"What do you mean?"

"People can dance together in partners rather spontaneously not because they've memorized the whole dance they're about to do, but because the leader makes the follower _feel_ the move they're about to do."

When Atem only waited for her to continue, Anzu felt a demonstration would be best. "Here, watch." She suddenly made them switch positions – she the leader and he the follower – and said, "Ready?" to which the pharaoh only seemed unsure.

But as soon as she said "Go," he had already moved, and in exactly the way she wanted him to.

He blinked in bewilderment.

"I didn't tell you what we were doing, did I? But you felt me push into you, so you stepped back."

What she was implying dawned upon the pharaoh. "Ah! So there is a slight delay."

"Correct! Partnered dancers don't move at the same time. The leader moves first, and the follower feels how the leader wants to move, because he pushes or pulls the follower a certain way using this strong stance. From this frame, you can feel my movements into or away from you, and so long as your feet are loose, you'll move with me," she explained, emphasizing her message by rocking back and forth in a step she never taught him, yet somehow taking him along with her as she did so. "The main thing the follower has to practice is their form: how they make their feet land when they're moved across the dance floor so they don't stomp everywhere or get their legs tangled up in each other."

Anzu switched their positions so that now Atem was again the leader. "So really, I'm making you do most of the work!" she proclaimed, sticking her tongue out at him playfully.

Atem grinned. She was trifling with him.

Yugi popped into his mind. "Is she…flirting with us?"

To this, the pharaoh only continued grinning.

"Try the steps with me a little bit without paying attention to the music. It's a little different moving with someone else than it is alone."

Atem obeyed, and without warning her, he pushed into her and began their basic step. Anzu smiled when they completed it. When they started the box, the pharaoh stepped a little too slowly, so the two of them got a bit tangled in one another.

"It's okay," Anzu cooed, reassuring him. With a slightly timid nod, he continued moving them. He recited the steps she had taught him with his feet, over and over again.

And just as he hit the one-minute mark of doing so, the song that had been playing ended. They would be together now, working as one, this time to the music.

"Ready?" Anzu asked, and just as she did, the next song, "Caribbean Blue", came on. Her heart leapt; she loved this song.

"This one's fast," she warned quietly in the seconds that spanned the song's brief opening. But when she looked up at her partner, he gave no appearances of being intimidated or afraid.

Atem closed his eyes and stilled his breath, listening closely. The beat was convoluted at the beginning, but…

There!

And with that, he moved forward, taking Anzu with him. The first two sets, he did a basic step followed by a box step, but after that, he left out the basic step entirely and instead did large box steps over and over.

 _One, two, three, one, two, three…_ The count came on automatically in his head after so much recent practice.

As he got the hang of it, and his feet started to feel as if they were moving by themselves to such a trivial step, he focused on rotating Anzu around him as he moved. He slowly began doing the steps with a bias so that they turned slightly to his right each box step, and – when he became more familiar with how it felt to step while rotating – he turned even more and more with her each time.

Anzu couldn't take her eyes off of the man before her. He had taken what he had been taught by her and surpassed all hopes of what she thought it could be, and instead evolved it into pure bliss. She was hopelessly locked in an overwhelming feeling of euphoria, her steps as light as if they were walking on a cloud. He was dancing with her, moving her across the floor in such a basic but so beautifully-executed step that made her close her eyes for a brief moment in the face of its intensity. But when she closed her shutters, she realized the only thing she saw was what she could already see while her eyes were open.

Yugi's face.

She opened her eyes again, and the crimson globes of the man staring back at her were just as focused on her as she was on him. In her peripheral, she could see the dance studio whirr past her in a blur.

When the chorus to the song came on, Anzu's soul felt as if it would drown in butterflies. Her heart was beating fast, and yet she felt a whole-body calm soothing her every limb, telling her nothing but to keep going, keep going, and fly with this boy forever.

Yugi took her on a ride, in her mind lifting her up to touch the clouds with her fingertips and twirling her around so her dress billowed out with the soft wind. Each time he cast her away from him and let her create a magical dance of her own, he brought her back and reintegrated her into his movements as if she were no more and no less than an extension of himself.

The song end brought her back out of her daydreams, and she cast her sparkling sapphires on the one who had been keeping her afloat the entire time.

Yugi.

When she looked at him, every sound in the room suddenly faded out. As they slowly came to a stop, and their arms relaxed again, she tilted her head and felt herself memorizing every last bit of detail in his focused orbs of crimson.

He made no reply. After their beautiful dance as one being, he chose to say nothing, only holding onto her with the tender remnants of their dance frame.

And that suited her just fine.

Before she knew it, she had raised her hand and drawn it up to his face. In the next moment, she touched it to his skin, dragging her fingertips lightly against his cheek.

And in his equally potent trance, he slowly turned his head toward her finger, then planted his lips against it.


	16. The Breath

When his lips touched her finger, Anzu couldn't tear her eyes away. Yugi's own eyes had closed, and he put every ounce of his mind and soul into kissing her softly, sweetly.

The desire for those soft, gentle lips on hers made Anzu's mouth begin to tremble. The song had changed, but she didn't notice, didn't care. She wished she could have a snapshot of this moment forever, and she tried her best to paint it in her brain's memory for as long as it lasted.

After many seconds, the pressure of his lips faded from her finger. He opened his eyes and shared her gaze once more.

With much effort, she at last found her voice. "Could you…"

He was listening with the kind of utmost, undivided attention that she would never have been able to imagine from anyone before now.

"Could you…do that again?"

Atem chuckled, the husky sound coming from deep in his throat. Her request told him it was okay to feel as he did now, desiring her as he had never desired anything else in his entire life.

With her wordless, doe-eyed permission, he brought himself closer to her, and as her sapphires emptied from his vision, he pressed his lips against her cheek.

Anzu closed her eyes and allowed herself to be taken to the gates of heaven by her best friend's light kiss. If she had been left there now, never to return, she would be satisfied.

She felt her source of divine comfort draw away from her face, and she saw him clearly again.

He smiled. He had gotten to _kiss_ her, just as he had him.

"Please, teach me more of this," he urged. Being the cause of the expressions he had seen cross her face as they danced together was now his primary goal for the rest of the time they had in the dance studio. He could scarcely think of anything that would give him more joy, and more of a chance to kiss her again.

"M – Mm," Anzu nodded, her hair bobbing with her head. Having someone so interested in one of her main passions in life – just as she was interested in his – gave her a remarkably pleasant release of frustration from what had occurred outside the studio not so long ago.

With his hands still placed gingerly on her shoulders, Anzu asked, "What would you like to learn? More steps?"

"Actually…" the pharaoh started, lifting a finger to scratch his cheek. "I've seen shows on television where the man spins his partner. How do I…do that?"

Anzu's face locked up in an inferno. "You want to learn to spin me?"

"Yes."

"O-okay. Well, the first thing is…"

As she began to explain, Atem dropped his hands from her to aid her instruction, albeit very reluctantly. She noticed and pouted ever so slightly, but didn't make it obvious.

"During a transition, like from the basic to the box step or the reverse, there's a window where you can change what you're doing quite comfortably. You can actually change your step at any point, so long as you're in a good enough linking position, but that's a bit too advanced for us for now."

Atem reveled in Anzu's usage of the inclusive "us" to indicate the two of them. Being lumped together with her, even just verbally, made a grin reach his lips.

"So, when you're about to switch your step, and while both of you are moving, the principle is the same: you make your partner feel that she's supposed to spin."

"How do I do that?"

"Imagine we're in dance frame right now."

The regal pharaoh himself pouted at only being able to imagine it instead of feel it for the time being.

"Now, in waltz, you normally don't spin much, if at all, since, you know, you're normally so…close."

He knew.

"But it's possible if you go like this: loosen your right-hand hold on your partner's shoulder just a little – since you're about to break frame – and after bringing your left arm just a little bit to your core so she'll feel the change, abruptly stick it out like this," she said, demonstrating. He got into a loose frame and obeyed.

"Don't stick it out like – Er, I guess I should've said instead that you bring your arm in, then bring it out in a smooth movement. 'Abruptly stick it out' was a bad phrase to use for that. Let's try that again," she said, bopping herself on the head a little. Atem did, this time attempting to keep his arm moving as gracefully as he could.

"Much better," she said, grinning widely as if she could already feel him do it to her. "With a person's hand attached to yours right now, they would feel the inclination to spin out beneath it. That's why you raise it high like that, to give her enough room to go under it." The pharaoh nodded, understanding it well. She really was not a bad teacher at all; her nervousness was unwarranted.

But she wasn't nervous just because of that. "Okay, now let's try to do it while stepping. I'll do the beat: One, two, three, one, two, three."

And as she did, he did a normal box step. When she continued to count, between the box step and the next step, he began to move his arm in the way she had just taught him, bringing it in at the end of the box step to move it away from him again at the beginning of the next step. He imagined her hanging onto his hand like she had been before, and he could imagine her spinning like he'd seen in some of the movies Yugi and he would sometimes catch on television.

"Great! Yeah, just like that!"

The music was still on, but they had been ignoring it for several minutes now. Now Anzu registered that it was still playing, and she felt silly for counting for him just a moment ago.

 _If it wasn't obvious that my brain isn't fully in the game before…_

"Okay, let's use the _music_ ," she emphasized, chastising herself, "to have you feel out when to do that with me latching on."

Atem smiled. This is the part he had wanted. She came close to him, readying her frame with him, but before she was finished, she caught a glimpse of the look on his face. He was absolutely beholding her. She kept her eyes down in the interest of concentration, and completed their frame.

With a careful eye and equally attentive ear, the pharaoh had paid attention to every minute detail of how she had taught him and demonstrated how to do the spin. He hoped it would be enough.

"Here we go," Anzu said quietly. Her mind was a scramble.

And with that, the two of them felt the music pulse through them. He took her into a box step, and on the sixth, he brought his arm high to give her space and direction. She obediently spun from inside to out beneath his arm and smiled as she felt the success of both teaching him how to do it properly and having him actually do it to her wash over her. For three beats, she spun below his arm.

But on the fourth beat, his right hand broke their frame and reached forward, settling on her waist before pulling her back flat against his chest.


	17. The Surrender

**Keep in mind this fic's rating.**

* * *

The music was of no consequence anymore. Silence and tension permeated the air.

He wasn't stepping with her anymore. Instead, he held them still, his arms wrapped around her front. As she still tried to comprehend what had happened, his left arm settled comfortably around her waist as well.

"Y…Yugi?"

From her left side, Atem drew near her ear.

"Anzu…" he whispered there.

As she realized what had transpired, what he had done – was this real? – she could only nod in bare acknowledgment to his question, unable to offer any more at that moment.

But as the echoes of silence lingered on, she realized it hadn't been a question.

Her dance partner kept his mouth close to her ear, breathing lightly against her so that the loose strands of her hair began to shake.

She joined them in their trembling. Her whole body was victim of an earthquake as she now understood what was happening.

As if to cement this, Atem brought his face to hers and kissed her cheek again.

"Yugi…" she said, her eyebrows knitting as she erupted in desire, and guilt.

"Don't think," he pleaded, noticing her slight change in countenance.

Anzu bit her lip to try and bite back her whirring mind – the mind that was conjuring up images of how terrible a person she was and how she would have to beg Seto to take her back after this.

"Don't think," he urged again, quieter this time. He moved his nose to her ear and dragged it along the skin there.

"Don't think," she repeated the mantra to herself, trying to keep calm. But he was in fact making it quite easy for her to lose all hope of thought as the seconds beat on.

 _Thump thump, thump thump, thump thump…_

"Yugi…"

"Anzu, please listen to me."

She was all ears, and would be even if she didn't want to be. His face was just beside hers.

"I cannot…bear to watch as someone neglects to treat you as you deserve. I may not be a CEO… But I've always known your dreams. I know you want to be a professional dancer and move to America. I know you're enamored by music. I've never forgotten your birthday, or how your favorite flower is the orchid."

She felt the hair touching her face almost…brush down her cheek.

"And I can't let you be Kaiba's treasure when I…love you."

Anzu drew in a sharp breath. She turned her head and came face-to-face with Yugi, his wide eyes boring into hers, though she could tell it was not without difficulty for him after such a heartfelt confession.

"Yugi?"

He was taller again, and as soon as she saw his crimson globes hold her sapphires more stubbornly, more precisely in their gaze, she felt the floodgates break open.

She turned her body around in his arms, fastened her own around his back, and put her weight onto her toes, pressing her lips into his.

Atem's eyes struck wide. It took him only a moment to realize that this was it, this was finally it.

And there was no more dalliance.

Atem returned her kiss with a fervor unlike anything she'd ever felt directed at her before. His grip around her waist tightened and left her nowhere to go but closer to his chest, and he tasted her lips like she were his lifeblood. His brows knitted in concentration as he desperately tried to commit the sensation to memory. After losing feel of the moment in doing so, however, he gave it up and chose instead to pull her face even closer, crashing his lips into hers with unbearable passion.

Anzu was being driven crazy. His every movement, his every touch now told her, with no room for misinterpretation, that he ached for her, which in turn powerfully drew out feelings she had been harboring deep within her core for him for so long.

Anzu started to push forward into him, as if continuing their dance. Without thinking about it, the pharaoh began stepping back in turn. Before long, Atem's back clashed with the wall behind them.

When the impact forced their kiss became so passionate it hurt, Anzu teased his lips open with hers and delved her tongue inside.

 _Anzu…_ his body begged her from its darkest depths.

She quickly learned the consequences of her ways, as he lifted a hand and placed it on her head, pushing her harder against him and causing her tongue to dart deeper.

Anzu tasted the inside of her best friend's mouth with relish. She could feel her buried desires frothing forth to the surface as their tongues wrapped around each other, wresting for control.

With a surge of panic, Anzu realized, _I need him._

Interrupting her worry came Atem's hand, which instinctually began its descent from her waist to down her back, but then stopping briefly to rest on her side.

 _Anzu…_ his mind repeated, far less in charge this time. He was desperately trying to remain in control of himself despite rapidly decreasing odds, but his body was answering to her tongue's movements more than he could keep it in check.

 _I can't even…think…_ Anzu lamented, aware that she was about to lose herself. Her deeper mind dared Yugi to continue his trek down her body.

And as she focused wholly on it, she felt his hand do just that: slowly, almost painfully slowly in their shared passion, he lowered his hold on her. His reach almost came over her buttocks…

But then, he broke away from her mouth and twirled her around as if they were simply performing another move. For a second, she almost thought he would continue the dance. Instead, he latched onto her, holding her strictly against him with her waist trapped in his strong grip.

"Anzu," he said huskily, desperately, "if at _any_ point what we're doing is too much for you, just say the word 'stop', and I will stop immediately."

"Yugi… Yugi, don't…"

"That's not the word, Anzu," he said in a low growl, hardly able to hold himself back anymore. His hand began climbing her body, moving higher and higher…

"Yugi, please…" she called, trembling in his grasp.

"Anzu…" he reprimanded again. Was that the signal? But no, she hadn't said it yet.

His hand continued its course upward, and soon, his fingertips were touching the underside of her breast.

"Yugi, please don't – _Ah_!"

He was cupping her breast now, feeling the delectably heavy weight in his hand as a growl welled up from a deep-seated place in his core.

"Anzu…if you want me to stop…that's not the word!" his mind admonished in a last-ditch effort.

He was trying to make her understand. She was bringing to light not only the desire of a boy who had loved her madly for many years, but also the desire of a pharaoh who always wrested for control of what he wanted, and unlike Yugi, he was a bit more familiar with such a sensual dance, even if it wasn't by much.

His mind began going blank. He could feel it: his body was about to take full charge.

He squeezed her there, gently at first, but then he enveloped the entire globe in his hand and dug into her with his fingers. Anzu winced slightly and began panting, her body desperately trying to catch its breath in spite of the growing, suffocating heat between them.

His other hand quickly reached up to her head to turn her face into his, his mouth covering hers again in an instant. Her pants were silenced.

All the pharaoh could hear now were her muffled breaths against his lips. As if to pay her back for what she had done – what she had awakened in him, with seemingly little regard as to the consequences – he quickly drowned out of the sound of them with his tongue.

Anzu's eyes clenched shut in what she initially thought was resistance, but as the moments drew on, she began to understand it wasn't resistance at all, but instead her cravings mirroring his own. She realized that with her own desire tugging at her heartstrings, she'd be able to do nothing but give into his heated fire.

When she didn't move to stop him, nor wrestle her mouth free to say the word and still him, he wended part of his hand in the space between her collarbone and her shirt, feeling down the line of her cleavage with a finger.

"Mmph!"

As he took turns alternating his fingers in the valley between her breasts, where he felt no underlying material – was her tight dance shirt doubling as a bra? – he pulled back from her mouth briefly and opened his eyes, leaving her plenty of space for her lips to move and shoot his advances down.

But she didn't. Instead, her eyes shot open, and, wondering why on earth he had stopped, she pulled his face back down to hers.

In response, he made quick work of the first button that held the front of her shirt together. Then the second. Then, the third…

When his fingers came together to sift the last button back through its buttonhole, Anzu felt a tremor shoot through her as her breasts erupted free to the air. She moaned, her legs turning inward and coming together as if to attempt to stem the oxygen flow to the raging inferno between her thighs.

Atem exhaled sharply, admiring her breasts from his view from above her shoulder. He looked at the flesh of her brightly-colored nipples, and he couldn't but help himself: he cupped her exposed flesh on both sides, reaching around the underside and grazing her nipples with his fingertips.

Anzu couldn't bear to say his name anymore; it seemed like to do so would somehow interrupt the flow of sensation crashing into her every neuron and bring Yugi out of his amorous trance. She couldn't and she wouldn't risk it. Not now, and not ever.

As one hand continued its trek of exploring her mounds of flesh, the other began leaning toward a different objective. It traced the curvaceous lines of her body downward and held three fingers out as it passed over the waistband of her dance shorts.

Anzu moaned before he even reached his target. Just the thought of what could happen next was able to entice her to the utterance alone.

But when he actually did it – when he actually touched the tip of his forefinger between her legs and through her dance shorts – she exploded into a shudder so powerful it shook the both of them as one.

His ministrations continued over the rest of her body, his other hand playing with her pert, pink nipples and his tongue still swirling around the inside of her mouth. But as he began rubbing his fingers very intently between her thighs, she reached her arm up suddenly and hooked it around the back of his neck, giving him full access to do whatever he pleased.

"Mmph, mm…"

Atem moved his fingers over her heated entrance through her dance shorts, sucking in a breath when she grabbed him in such a way that propelled him forward with little doubt as to her desire. When there could be no other interpretation of the hunger both of them were nursing to proceed, he abruptly removed his hand, traced back upward to surpass the material of her waistband, and resumed his trek downward once more.

To this, Anzu lost all her breath. She broke their kiss with a glazed look in her eye, her expression that of a prey trapped in a predator's grasp.

Atem gazed back into her sapphires, his crimson irises unwavering.

His fingers came to the start of her pubic hair, and he fanned his fingers outward to graze over it in appreciation before brushing his way past it and settling on the outer lips of her womanhood.

To this, Anzu's mouth pursed anxiously, but she only continued looking into his eyes, her expression telling him she'd given up long ago on stopping what happened from now on.

 _I need him…_ her mind affirmed, too weak in comparison to her body's control to stop his advances even if she had wanted to.

As if to throw this into question, however, when his finger came down to touch her bare, most sensitive nub, her legs clenched together, trapping his hand.

But it was only for a brief moment. He looked at her with concern to encourage her to remember she had a chance to make him stop with just one word. As if she read his mind in that moment, she nodded and her lips curved up ever so slightly, signaling it was okay to continue. Her legs' hold on his digits released, which left him free to go further.

So he did. He stilled the hand on her breast temporarily to focus on his actions down below, and with one, shaking sigh, he reached down to feel her at her entrance.

Immediately, a shudder overcame his entire body and he drew a strangled breath. She was drenched in fluid, and it covered his fingers almost exhaustively after he had just barely touched her there. Without much more cursory experimentation – he couldn't bear to not enjoy the ample fruits she had just bore him – he braced his index and ring finger around the sides of her entrance and dug his middle finger inside.

"Ahhh!" she screamed, grabbing his forearm tightly and pushing it down with much of her weight, as if to launch her body upward and away from the affront.

But in her shocked reaction, she had given no verbal indication for him to stop. He delved his finger inside of her, then took it out before sliding it inside of her again, and paid ample attention to her face for any sign of resistance overcoming her features.

There were none.

As he moved inside and out of her with his increasingly inundated finger, he started to resume his movements over her chest. He would penetrate her, and then squeeze her, and penetrate her, and massage her, and soon, the two of them were locked in an increasingly fervent battle of sensation.

His movements over her were growing ever faster, and before long, he wanted to probe another finger inside of her. He checked her face once more, then inserted his index finger into her damp channel.

"Ohhh!" she cried, turning her head to the side and burying her face into his neck. It had hurt, and she was shocked at the feel of suddenly being filled so much by his eager digits.

When he saw how overwhelmed she felt by just two of his fingers, he groaned, a new desire in him awakened. He wanted to see her _writhe_.

He allowed himself a few more seconds to explore her alluring tight walls, then let go and extricated himself from her completely, setting her free from the iron grip against his chest.

Blinded by sensation and desire, Anzu looked at him with shock, confusion, and defiance.

"What are you…?"

But he soon answered her. He angled her body to the side and walked toward her, backing her up against the table on which the computer sat. Then, when the back of her legs had hit it, he hooked his arms behind her knees and lifted her up just enough to sit her up on the table.

"Y-Yugi?"

With a look of triumph across his face, he got on his knees and looked up at her. His pools of crimson remained focused on her for a long time.

Anzu, breathless, didn't understand. Was he…kneeling to her?

When he could tell she didn't comprehend his actions, he chuckled. Then, he moved forth and settled his face between her legs.

" ** _Yugi_**!" she scolded. But her defiance was weak, and he met no opposition as he grabbed the waistband of her dance shorts and began pulling them down to her knees. She watched their descent with a mixture of astonishment, excitement, and trepidation.

He pulled them lower, lower, lower…until finally, her panties were visible, and just atop them, he could see a small shock of brown pubic hair.

Instantly, Anzu she covered her face in terror, feeling extremely self-conscious. She swore at her shaving habits the past week, cursed herself for not even thinking to trim properly for several days. She never even dreamed that something like this would happen today, not with her boyfriend, and not with _anyone_.

But Atem was not deterred in the slightest. Her allure to him was only heightened as he took a thumb and appreciatively rubbed it against the tuft. The pharaoh was the last person she had to be self-conscious around when it came to that kind of thing – his preferences had always been widely dynamic.

Anzu's blush-stained cheeks were the only parts of her face visible behind her hands, and he felt she could not enjoy what he intended to do if she would not allow herself to watch.

"Anzu, you are beautiful. There is no need to hide," Atem coaxed gently.

 _Thump thump, thump thump, thump thump…_

Though her heart felt as if it would escape from her chest and launch itself into Yugi's arms, she couldn't get over her embarrassment as he brought her panties down further, exposing more of her body.

"Please look at me," Atem requested, his heart breaking at her reluctance to accept herself as more than attractive the way she was.

From her hiding spot behind her hand and hair, Anzu poked an eye out. His face was earnest, and he looked concerned about her. She swallowed. She didn't want him to feel she wasn't enjoying what was happening, but she just couldn't see herself the same way he said he did…

As if to scorn her own fears and insecurities about herself, she forced herself to look at him with both eyes in the open, though she blushed when her attempt to seem courageous made her feel like a creepy voyeur. Laughing nervously, she turned her head away just slightly and watched him out of the corner of her eye, her body flushed a crimson that almost matched his eyes.

Atem smiled. _That's much better._

He continued drawing her panties down, and before long, he caught the scent of her arousal in his nostrils. He breathed deeply, flooding his senses with it. The smell of her ardor made his own ramp up sharply, and he swiftly took her underwear in both hands and slid it down to the level of her shorts, which were hooked just above her knees.

The sight of her bare flesh there awakened his every neuron to what he desired next. He could barely contain himself. Her juices were already flowing down her labia, and they framed her entrance as if she were a wrapped up present delivered to him personally. He pushed his face forward and touched his nose to her warm lips.

Anzu's mouth fell open. She had been thinking he was going to penetrate her with…something bigger, but not keep his face there! She bristled and felt shivers invade her every limb, but didn't hide her face again as per his request.

Atem hooked his hands under her knees and pushed her legs over his head and onto his shoulders. Then, he closed the gap between them, extending his tongue to lick her from the bottom of her entrance to the top.

"Yugi!" she scolded in panic. But the gates had been blasted open. As soon as he had done it, her hand shot to his hair, and she felt herself riding a wave of surging pleasure. Despite her protests, her every inch urged him in body language to keep going.

Atem drew his tongue up and down her soaking labia for several seconds, then made himself comfortable by pulling her closer to the edge of the table to provide a better angle for his neck as he began to taste her in earnest, swirling his tongue in a circle to catch both her labia and her sensitive nub in one go.

Yugi – long held silently flabbergasted by the turn of events the likes of which he could never have foreseen in his entire lifetime – suddenly surfaced in the pharaoh's mind. His only purpose was simple, requiring just two words to communicate his disbelief.

 _Tasting…Anzu…_ Saying he couldn't believe it was so insufficient to describe the feeling that Yugi could utter no more.

Smirking to himself, Atem closed his eyes.

In the next moment, Yugi's face was pressed up against Anzu's womanhood. He allowed himself to be shocked for only a second or two before realizing he must continue Atem's work, but quickly looked up from his position to admire her softly-bouncing breasts, as she had begun shaking the table in a wordless attempt to beg him to continue.

As Anzu rode his face, Yugi felt his eyes roll back. She was inserting his eager tongue into her channel and lifting off of him before doing so again, and he was so elated to lap up her juices that he kept licking furiously each time his tongue became trapped inside of her. He never wanted this to end.

Each time the tricolor-haired boy buried his face into her folds, Anzu's back arched, and she began to lose the balance necessary to keep herself upright. As the seconds ticked on, Yugi's grip on the backs of her knees rose higher and higher, and soon, Anzu was lying flat on her back with him partially standing and leaning over her, the ministrations of his tongue against her womanly flesh fully visible in graphic detail to the girl the skin belonged to.

Anzu could only bear to watch him for a few more seconds before her shoulders buckled and her neck flew backward, her back arching into the table beneath her.

" ** _Yuuugi_**!" she screamed, so overwhelmed by the sensation that she couldn't contain her volume anymore.

 _Taste her up there, Yugi..._ the voice inside his head urged.

Yugi obeyed immediately. Every time he was given a moment between Anzu slamming her thighs against his face and force-launching his tongue into her entrance, he took the second of rest to angle his face upward and touch his tongue to her nub, then the next time, to catch it in his mouth.

Before long, she was writhing, begging him with every ounce of strength she had. "Please, Yugi, _please_ … _More_ …"

 _Finish her off._

Yugi sped up his tongue, and this time, when she sat on his face, he obediently swirled it around her insides, then relentlessly attacked the heart of her nerves just above her labia. He tasted, sucked on, licked, and drowned her in sensation there, and it wasn't long before she was bucking upward against his face and calling out his name.

" ** _YUUUGIII_**!"

Her contractions were sudden, and Yugi had never experienced anything like it before. He nearly panicked as her whole body launched up and down like a wave with his head in tow, and her trembling thighs crashed into his cheeks hard more than once.

Seeing some of her stray fluids had mixed with her sweat, and peppered her still-quivering entrance with reflective drops.

Taking in the sight, a certain male was enticed.

"Please, Yugi," the pharaoh stated, "let me take over."

The finality of the pharaoh's voice, and the certainty with which he had insinuated his desire, left Yugi no room to argue.

"Besides, aibou," he called, signaling he wasn't quite finished. "What better way to make her lose herself in pleasure than to do this together?"

The pharaoh was satisfied when the boy agreed. He pushed forth out of Yugi's mind, and immediately, he lunged forward, greedily lapping up the remaining fluids that Yugi's sloppy, thirsty tongue had made leak from her entrance and her pores.

Anzu, paralyzed, looked down at him in disbelief. "Yugi, I… I'm so sensitive there now… Please, not so much…"

Her softly-spoken objections only fueled his fire, her shyness turning him on. He bathed her nether regions in his saliva until her own juices ran dry, and she endured his zeal with closed eyes and very red cheeks.

When the pharaoh had consumed the remnants of her body's offering to him, neither sweat nor fluid of any kind remained.

Now, it was time.

He leaned over her fully, touching his lips to hers. She touched his shoulder, but couldn't muster any words to his face after what he had done to her, what he had made her feel.

Atem lifted her chin with a hand and gazed into her eyes longingly.

"I love you, Anzu."

This time, he had been able to say it; the first time had been Yugi's claim.

He reached his hand up to caress her cheek, just as he had done before. In her sapphire eyes, he saw his future, the one he wanted to spend his time with in this unfamiliar world.

They kissed once more, Anzu pulling him down to tantalize her own lips with his again as his words made her whole world soar.

"Please," he whispered. "It would mean everything to me to be able to please you further."

Anzu colored at the insinuation, but even above and beyond that, at his wording. He was doing this to please her?

"Yugi... I don't know what to say…"

"Say yes," he coaxed. Anzu looked down at him, and she laughed: his face was impish, and the quintessential embodiment of someone trying to convince another to play the game his way.

Anzu couldn't bring herself to outright say it. Instead, she settled on: "Well… You've already gotten me so prepared…" She took a hand and touched the top of her mound to draw his attention to how she was starting to get wet again. His genuine sweet-talking had had plenty of effect on her.

Atem smiled. He kissed her on her forehead, then slowly reached his hand downward. He grasped a side of his pants in each hand, then unbuttoned the top. He looked up to Anzu again, but when she made no objection, he drew the zipper downward until his pants fell away from his body slightly, catching around his hips.

Though his passion could be felt coursing through every inch of his body, he was not in a rush. He rejoined Anzu on the table and began kissing her senseless.

Obviously surprised at this turn of events, she kissed back, feeling like a shy little schoolgirl again. Though everything that had happened was far beyond her expectations of how anything would go with him, somehow, he kept her feeling comfortable no matter what they did.

As their mouths devoured each other, Anzu felt a nagging feeling at the back of her mind.

She broke away from him. "Yugi?"

Atem stopped immediately, concern lining his face. "Anzu?"

She cast her eyes away from his imploring crimson, finding anything to stare at besides his face. But then, she reviewed the scenario in her head, and forced herself to look him squarely in the eyes.

"I love you…too. I think…I always have."

That was it.

Both Atem and Yugi's souls were bathed in elation. The pharaoh's lips found hers again and he began kissing her, but this time, the hunger was kept at bay: he tasted her as if she were the sweetest apricot he'd ever have in his entire life.

They held their mouths pushed together for a long time before Anzu's eyes snapped open. With them, she glanced down between her legs and found what had shocked her to her core: she could see his erection pressing against her folds every few seconds they moved. Her body shuddered in response to seeing what she now so desperately wanted to feel inside of her.

As if he read her mind, Atem's hand found the material covering his legs and he began loosening it further. Before long, his pulsing length sprang from his pants, and just as Anzu was about to get a good look at it, he covered her whole body with his.

Before going any further, Atem took her hand in his. It was a sweet gesture, one that was far removed from the hungry, detached railing in which he knew his peers in Egypt engaged.

"Anzu," he said one last time, and before she could respond, he positioned himself at her entrance and began pushing himself inside.

Anzu couldn't utter his name, though every cell in her body now screamed it. She grabbed fierce hold of him, tears already welling up in her eyes.

The pharaoh was immediately overcome by pleasure upon entering her with even just the tip of his arousal, but her body's resistance was potent. He found himself hard-pressed to thrust to any kind of depth; she was much too tight for that. Instead, he worked with what he had been given. Slowly, he drew himself outside of her, then pushed back inside. He withdrew, then delved in again.

Again and again he repeated the motion, Anzu's yearning body locking up in confusion and novel sensation, until finally he felt himself break through a barrier, and he was able to surge his entire length inside of her.

In tandem, Atem and Yugi fell forward, their lower teeth brushing against their tongues as they began panting deeply.

Anzu made a choking sound as her walls swallowed him whole.

After his initial thrust, Atem gave her time to adjust to him. Then, he withdrew and gave her a short breather before having her swallow him up again. Soon, he had established a rhythm, and soon, Anzu was rocking back and forth.

During most of their time in the dance studio, Anzu had kept quiet save for the occasional sound of pleasure slipping from between her lips. But the pharaoh was desirous of her in a way she had not been prepared for, and her worry, and her voice, quickly began ramping up as she felt him move inside of her.

Atem's thrusts were gaining momentum, and he pushed inside her with more and more power each time.

One thing he had prided himself on in Egypt was not letting his servants do absolutely everything for him; in return, he got to keep his stamina, and his strength.

He now used it to begin to teach Anzu just what a dangerously delectable decision she had made when she hadn't told him to stop.

Anzu had managed to regain just enough charge of her voice to shout, " ** _Yugi_**!"

But within a mere minute of pounding into her, Atem had Anzu's voice under his own control. He plowed into her tight channel, and her only form of communication was to screech at him and hope he understood. Her eyes began rolling back, but she caught them and kept them focused on his face, as if wanting to see the man who was driving her to heights she'd only fantasized about.

Harder and harder his thrusts became, and Anzu desperately grabbed at his back, failing and falling at first, but then wrapping herself around and pulling herself up against him. He grabbed her hips and made her ride him roughly, taking out on her body all the desire she had caused to pulsate through him.

Anzu couldn't talk, only feel. Occasionally, her mind was able to put out enough thoughts that she knew she was still extant.

 _My best friend is…flooding my body with sensation…_

She thought back to the boy she had met so long ago, the boy who always ran to her side if anything went wrong and kept her tears at bay.

She thought of all the times through the years that Yugi had tried to keep her emotions, and her heart, safe, never to be harmed by the outside world.

She thought of the taller Yugi, who had little trouble holding her gaze and telling her how wonderful she looked.

And then she thought of Kaiba.

The briefest look of extreme guilt crossed her face, but as fast as it had come, it had left.

He would never be able to make her feel this way. Not in her body, and not in her mind.

As she thought these thoughts, Atem's thrusts had slowed down. He was now gripping her tenderly, having satisfied and gotten the raging beast out of him. Now, when he pushed inside of her, he stayed there for a lingering second before extricating himself again.

Anzu settled into a comfortable, relaxed rhythm with him, and she smiled. Atem grinned back, his eyes reflecting the love they both shared.

In that moment, she realized she was Yugi's, and she always had been.

* * *

 **Please do me a favor, and if you only review one chapter in this whole fic, choose this one. :)**


	18. The Truth

"Hey, Yuge. How're you feelin' today? Any better'n yesterday?"

The clock had struck, and school had ended. The class was filtering out of the classroom, save for the two monkey friends, Anzu, and Yugi. Kaiba had already gone outside.

The tricolor-haired boy didn't say anything, at least not immediately. As he watched Anzu approach them and grab her best friend's hand, he grinned, his cheeks turning a pleasant red, letting the action speak for itself.

"Hey guys," Anzu called.

Silence. Jonouchi and Honda's jaws hit the floor.

"W-W-W-Wha?!" Jonouchi shouted, pointing his finger accusingly at the two of them. "You two…are you…"

"Together?" Anzu finished his question for him. She looked down at Yugi. He returned her gaze for a second before turning to them and nodding wordlessly but happily, unable to believe it himself.

"No way!" Honda screeched. "That's so awesome! You two are going to be the best couple, I just know it," he oozed.

Yugi and Anzu both blushed at his prediction. "Why do you say that?" Yugi finally spoke up, desperately curious.

To that, Jonouchi knew the answer. He waved his hand at them dismissively, as if it were obvious to everyone. "You two have been makin' ga-ga eyes at each other for yeas."

Honda nodded energetically. "You really have. Yugi, you've been talking about Anzu for a long time. Even when your words aren't saying you're into her, everything else is," he explained sagely, accompanied by Jonouchi's folded arms and emphatically agreeing nods.

Yugi felt himself shrink to the size of a pea. "I'll be going now," he said in a daze, turning almost robotic and walking awkwardly out of the room.

"Oh no you don't," Anzu said, pulling him next to her again. They all walked together, Jonouchi and Honda cackling and making inappropriate jokes behind their backs, straightening up innocently when Anzu glared at them and resuming their antics when she looked away.

The four of them reached outside, and Anzu split off, dropping Yugi's hand to face the two boys. "Hey guys, there's something I have to do, so I'll catch you later, okay?"

Suddenly, they were serious again. They understood. "You don't need'a tell me twice," Jonouchi said. "C'mon, Honda, let's go grab a bite at that _fancy American restaurant_."

The two of them walked off cackling, and Anzu blushed furiously. "How did they…?" Then, she looked down and over at Yugi. He was scratching the back of his head, laughing nervously.

"Ch'," she said, rising to her full height again. Outside of his view, she cracked a smile.

When Yugi had stopped laughing and looked back up at Anzu, she was gazing with a hint of melancholy across her features.

"Yugi, I'll catch you soon, alright?"

Yugi nodded. He understood without her giving any details.

Anzu found Kaiba in the distance, waiting for her by a tree. He looked sullen as always, with his arms crossed across his chest and his eyes hidden partially by his hair and partially by the shade.

She approached him carefully.

"Hi," she called.

Kaiba looked up. "Hey." He unfolded his arms and came out of the shade.

Silence pierced the air.

"I'm going to get straight to the point, because it's killing me," Anzu started ominously.

Kaiba's blue eyes grew wide.

"Yesterday, I was…"

How honest could she be?

She caught his curious, worried gaze, and after a brief moment of thought, she shook her head.

The truth was one thing. A stake in the heart was wholly another.

"…thinking," she finished, vastly understating the details. "And I started to realize that… I don't really know you. We don't really know each other that well at all," she emphasized.

"I don't know your dreams, I don't know your birthday, and I don't know how you react when you feel backed into a corner in a situation you thought you understood." Kaiba looked confused. Anzu continued.

"I don't know your favorite flower, and I definitely don't know how you feel about music," she said with a hint of wonder, echoing Yugi's discussion with her earlier.

"And I feel that, if I don't know these things… If I don't even know what the real you is like, how can I be with you?"

Kaiba digested her words for a time.

"Anzu, we can learn all of that. Why does it matter whether we know that at the start of a relationship?"

"Because I know that knowing all that…"

She thought of Yugi's face.

"…has made all the world of difference to me in the past, and I can't be without it. I want someone who's been with me through thick and thin, and knows these things not because I told him, but because he's experienced them with me."

Kaiba quickly gathered that she was no longer talking about him.

"Anzu… I know what this is about."

She looked up, surprised. "You do?"

"If you're going to do this, at least don't be a coward about by giving me one of your flowery speeches."

Anzu gasped. "What on earth do you…"

"You're talking about Yugi."

Anzu gritted her teeth at his sudden hostility. She could feel it permeate the already-thick air between them now.

"Have it your way. It's over. Just go and hop into your little prince's arms," he said, sarcasm inundating his voice as he turned his back on her and started to leave, his cape billowing out behind him.

With that, he was gone.

Anzu stared after him, feeling a potent mixture of anger, sadness, trepidation, guilt, and relief vying for control.

When he had left, Yugi came to stand beside her.

"He's strong," he said.

"Yeah, he is," she agreed.

"Though, it's a very hard thing…to let you be with someone else. I would know."

Anzu looked at him, sympathy all over her face. "You don't have to think about that anymore."

He smiled. He looked at her like she were his lifeline, taking her hands in his.

"I love you, Anzu."

"I love you too, Yugi."

With that, Yugi pushed onto his toes and kissed her. Before long, he no longer had to.

Atem wrapped his arms around Anzu and kissed her as passionately as if it were the last time he would ever see her. She kissed him back, letting him take the lead and choosing to pool her arms against his chest like a shy little girl.

He was her protection. He was her freedom.

He was her everything.

Atem pulled back from her. He smiled as her eyes shot wide for a split second at his changed appearance.

He would make his voice heard.

"I love you too, my sweet Anzu."


	19. Author Q&A

**Author Q &A**

Here are some brief tidbits about this story: one of the first, most special things about this story is I wrote it chronologically. I almost never do that. I sometimes intend to, but then I re-realize that it's sometimes way more logical to start somewhere in the middle and write the start and end after that. The introduction and conclusion of a story are no joke; they're usually some of the hardest pieces to write, so most times, writing them first - in any significant level of detail, at least - just seems unnatural to me. You've gotta know what your own story is before you can properly set it up for someone who's never read it before.

 **Q: Hi there, nice to meet you! Where are you from?**

A: Hiya friend! :3 The United States, but currently I'm living in Japan. :D

 **Q: Do you consider yourself a full-fledged writer?**

A: Absolutely. I'm actually writing a medieval fantasy/romance novel. If you like my style of writing, keep an eye out on my future stories, profile updates, or the website listed on my profile to catch word of it when it's finished. :D

 **Q: What's your favorite Yu-Gi-Oh pairing?**

A: Atem x Anzu x Yugi. Bring 'em all together.

To give a bit more detail and clarification, I do like stories like this one where it's both of them on a team to vie for Anzu's affections, but I also adore those where the two Yugis are pitted _against_ each other to appeal to Anzu.

As for my view of who the canon pairs together, even just those pairings who are placed together through subtle hinting... While watching the series, I originally thought Yugi had a crush on Anzu and Atem felt for Anzu as a bit of an extension of that. But as I've watched more, and _especially_ when the gang goes to Memory World in the fifth arc, I've come upon one main conclusion: Yugi and Atem may have a crush on Anzu, but Atem and Yugi are _absolutely in love_ with _each other_.

Early on around episodes 52-54 - just after the Millennium Puzzle is shattered and put together again - Yugi asks Atem who he is, and what he knows about himself. Atem says he knows nothing, other than that he is from Ancient Egypt and his soul is locked in the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi apologizes for the effect the conversation seems to have on the pharaoh, and when the pharaoh tries to tell him it's okay, Yugi, filled with guilt, implores him to stop talking about it. The two of them stare at each other intensely, before Atem smiles at Yugi. He tells him he wants to be with him forever. He comforts Yugi by saying he doesn't care if he gets his memories back. Yugi, surprised, then stammers that he feels the exact same way about him, and with tear-filled eyes, says he'd be more than willing to give Atem all of his memories. Atem places his hands over Yugi's and they gaze at each other for a long time.

This is in the _canon_!

And when Yugi asks Anzu to go on a date with Atem in episode 53 - and he dresses himself up for it to suit the pharaoh's personality more - Anzu talks to Atem at the coffee shop, and Atem almost immediately brings up Yugi, his thoughts heavy with concern at how he's trying to fit in too much by putting on things he said weren't his style, which was completely unrelated to the conversation they were having (I just love when Atem tries to convince Yugi to come to the dark [Egyptian] side and wear all the bracelets, bangles, and accessories possible~). Then, after he buys some cards at a card shop, he oozes that his aibou will be so happy to see the good card he got. Even while Atem's supposed to be enjoying himself by wandering leisurely in the modern world, he just can't stop thinking about _Yugi_.

And then just look at Atem's extremely emotional reaction when Yugi sacrifices his own soul to be locked in the Seal of Orichalchos in place of the pharaoh's. Through the series, Yugi and Atem are usually quite affected with their friends are in danger. But when it's his _aibou's_ soul, Atem's usual, unwavering countenance is _absolutely destroyed_ as he utterly shakes and trembles with heartbreak and curses himself while quickly becoming an emotional wreck. To see it, go to YouTube and, after the dotcom, put watch?v=VI-JEKfGMJg

These two aren't just two halves of the same whole, even though that's already saying a lot. They're completely _head over heels in love with each other_.

It's like Xena and Gabrielle all over again, and it's _beautiful_.

 **Q: What was the hardest/longest scene to write?**

A: The Urge, The Reaction, or The Guilt in terms of difficulty or lack of flow. It felt like I was writing those scenes forever, but I really thought the content was story-heavy and I wanted to give them the attention they were due. I consider The Guilt my worst chapter of this fic; after writing all the way up through The Panic in one day, I had a little bit of a hard time at the start of the next day getting back into it. Though, since I already had The Confrontation kind of planned out in my mind, that one wasn't too bad, even though it was the first chapter in day two of my seemingly never-ending writing journey of those three days.

The longest chapter to write...well, that would be the one that's 5,576 words compared to the others that average between 1,000-2,000. :3

 **Q: What was the fastest scene to write?**

A: Funnily enough, the really long dance chapters, where Anzu goes into detail teaching Yugi how to do the Viennese Waltz.

 **Q: What was the most fun scene to write?**

A: The Restaurant! I had so much fun with that one. :D

 **Q: Where did you learn the Viennese Waltz?**

A: In one of two dancing electives I took during university. Funnily enough, my degree was in Computer Science.

 **Q: What's one important thing you've learned while writing over the years?**

A: Something about this fic is that it's the simplest - yet in some ways the most developed - piece I've ever written. For example, over my years of writing, I've learned - especially after reading so many other stories wherein characters are brought hopelessly out of character - when using overly formal language is appropriate, and when it just doesn't fit the story or the characters, even though it can make a story sound more flowery and high-brow. I'll give an example.

What if I were to write Yugi in the two following ways?

"Anzu, I love you. In all my years, I have never laid eyes upon a beautiful woman such as yourself before, and I do not think I ever will get the chance to again. No one has ever enticed me as you do."

Versus:

"Anzu, I love you. Over the years, I've met a lot of girls, but...to be honest, I've barely paid attention to them. My eyes have always been drawn to...well, _you_. You're just...so special to me."

Now let's try to do the same with Atem:

"Anzu, I can't believe you're here. I'm so relieved to see you; I thought the worst had happened to you."

Versus:

"Anzu, you're here. I'm so relieved to see you. I'm glad nothing bad happened to you."

Tell me: which one sounds more like their respective character?

As you can see, it's more appropriate to be long-winded for the Egyptian pharaoh than it is for the modern, timid game-player, who sounds out of character if he speaks with so much fluff. But of course, there are emotionally-charged times when it makes sense for them to switch! :) Nevertheless, I frequently find fics where the two are regularly switched, and it completely breaks my immersion in the story.

So, this illustrates my meaning in saying that you have to match the voice with the person, not just write in a way others may consider decorative and fancy all the time!

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Feel free to ask me any other questions in reviews or in a private message, and don't forget to check out my other stories on my profile! :D


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